Mass Effect: Desolation
by Epsilation
Summary: Sean Mason, a young merc, is rescued once again from Cerberus by Cmdr. Shepard and returns to the Normandy. But people aboard the Normandy see him as a dormant threat. Shepard must fight rising emotions and keep her crew focused on the main goal: Stopping the Reapers.  Continuation of previous story Lost Past    OC/Tali romance. Rated M- violence, language, and minor sexual theme
1. Prologue

****Author's Note: Epsilation here!****

********This story is a continuation of my previous story Mass Effect: Lost Past{.net/s/7397200/1/Mass_Effect_The_Lost_Past} (If you want to read it/catch up) I will do my best to make this as welcoming to new readers as well as people continuing the story. I plan for this to be my last FanFiction before I begin writing actual novels, so any and all criticism is welcome.****  
>So I have played through ME3 multiple times and looked forward to transplanting my OC into the storyline. I am not a fan of the ending, mostly because there's so many questions left open, and I plan on rewriting it unless Bioware releases DLC that fixes it.<br>Bla, bla, bla legal stuff. I don't own Mass Effect titles yadda yadda.  
>So any way onto the story. Rated M for violence, language, and some sexual stuff.<strong>**

****Without any furthermore delay, I give you the next step in Shepard's journey, I give you...**  
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><p><strong>Mass Effect: Desolation<strong>

Prologue

The hallway was dark. The only light came from a window that looked out on a forming galaxy. The dim light emitted bounced off the perfectly polished floors and walls giving the insides of the space station a cold glow. The outsides of the station made it appear abandoned, but inside it swarmed with workers darting back and forth. Most of the workers were scientists busying themselves with their recent tests.  
>One of the manicured hallways stood devoid of life and activity. Various doors branched off of the hallway to rooms and personal quarters. All doors were locked, keyed to only open to a specific code that only the resident held, all but one. This single door, not distinguishably different that any of the others, stood unlocked its green light shining brightly.<p>

A guard entered the hall, his boots quietly scratching against the polished floor as he quickly walked to the unlocked door. He was clad in simple white and orange armor, emblazoned with the symbol of his employer. As the door hissed open the guard immediately snapped to attention. Inside was a simple office. A metal desk fitted with holographic technology, floors flawless and polished, and a window overlooking the darkness of space. A man sat inside, his back to the door. His grey hair almost perfectly matched the grey metal of the desk. The glow of his piercing blue eyes reflected off the glass. As the man noticed the door open his eyes momentarily twitched to the side, trying to catch who entered in his peripherals, then immediately snapped back to the darkness in front of him.

"Sir, the prisoner is ready." He said straightening his stance.

The man didn't respond immediately, he just sat in his chair puffing away at his cigarette and reading some information that flashed across the holographic screen of his omni-pad. Taking one final drag, he set down his omni-pad and spun around in his chair. The man set down the omni-pad and extinguished his cigarette.

"Bring him to medical." He replied coolly, his face devoid of emotion, "alert them that I will be arriving to observe the operation as well."

"Yes sir." The guard said snapping a quick salute. He then turned on his heels and quickly exited the room.

"Orders from the Illusive Man, bring the prisoner to medical." the guard said.

"Wouldn't want to anger him, even now." The other guard said, lightly chuckling.

The guards walked toward the only active cell. Behind the field lay a man, his hands cuffed behind his back. He only wore a pair of black pants, faded and scuffed from times worn before. His chest was bare, exposing several scars from bullets, one stood out from the rest. This scar stretched from the bottom of his right shoulder to his hipbone. His head was lolled off to the side, revealing multiple cuts and bruises acquired during his hauling to the cell. The guards approached and deactivated the field.

"Don't get any wise ideas." One of the guards commented. The prisoner didn't respond.

"Come on, no sense to keep the boss waiting." The other guard said, beginning to lift the prisoner up by the arms.

"Yeah, yeah." The other guard impatiently responded. Reaching his hand through the prisoner's arm and lifting. The guard yelped and immediately dropped the prisoner, hard against the ground. "That bugger's arm bit me!" he said massaging his hand.

"Well no shit! It's robotic, and by the looks of it, home made." The other guard remarked, "Come on, don't be such a baby."

Snorting in disgust the guard lifted up the prisoner as the two of then proceeded to drag him to the medical wing.

The door opened as a team of scientists helped the prisoner up and onto the operating table, where the guards began to strap him onto the table. The scientists and doctors began to scamper to their positions around the table, their equipment at the ready.

"Hold up." One of the guards said raising his hand and halting the doctors, eagerly surrounding the prisoner, "The Illusive Man wants to be here to witness this operation." Obeying the command, the doctors took a step back and waited patiently.

"Sir." The other guard said snapping into attention as the Illusive Man entered the room.

"I want him awake for this operation." The Illusive Man said coolly nodding toward the unconscious prisoner. One of the doctors produced a syringe of adrenaline and injected into the arm of the prisoner.

The prisoner's green eyes snapped open as his head flew forward. His body began to work at overdrive trying to adjust to the sudden jolt of adrenaline. His arms and legs tried, desperately, to break through the restraints that locked him to the table. Quickly his eyes darted around the room trying to make sense to the new situation he was thrust into. His eyes immediately locked onto the Illusive Man.

"You." The prisoner said, his shaky body almost immediately halting, his eyes filling with anger.

"Welcome back Mr. Mason." The Illusive man said.

"I have nothing to say to you." Sean said, his eyes returning to the blinding light above him.

"You see, Sean," The Illusive Man began, ignoring the prisoner's response and stepping toward the operating table, "I put a large amount of money into your creation. Sadly, though, you were flawed. The chip we installed was far too weak, and easy to remove by surgery. This, on the other hand, won't be." He said railing up a small chip the size of his thumb. "Whether you want to or not you will fight for Cerberus."

"Are you done yet?" Sean asked indignantly.

"Always fighting until the end." The Illusive Man observed, "I admire that in a man. You'll be a valuable asset to our team." He then stepped away from the operating table. He nodded towards the doctors and they began their procedure.

Sean closed his eyes as he felt their icy instruments begin to cut his skin. He dared not scream. He didn't want to give the Illusive Man the satisfaction. He took a long and deep breath. The Illusive Man had won this battle, but the time would come when Sean could have his revenge.


	2. Chapter 1

**AN: Wow! Glad to see such positive reviews and so many Favorites and Follows. It is you guys that make me excited to write. So keep being awesome!**

**So this chapter is a tad shorter that I would like, but exposition is necessary before the beefy chapters appear.**

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

Shepard took a long and slow breath as she sat on the edge of her bed, staring blankly into her fish tank trying to calm her busy mind. The thoughts of leaving Earth bit deep into her mind. She hated leaving Earth behind. But she, as well as everyone else, knew that there was no other option.

Shepard exited her cabin and stepped into the elevator and out into the Crew Quarters. She was glad to be back on the Normandy, but everything felt differently familiar. She enjoyed the familiar faces of Joker, Garrus, and Liara and even some of the new faces but everything felt off. The galaxy had been flipped upside-down by the sudden attack. After two years of her warnings, the galaxy was still unprepared for an attack of this magnitude. At least she would be returning to take Earth back.  
>She didn't want the crew to see her worried. She knew she was the icon, the person they looked towards. If the tiniest bit of doubt appeared on her face, they would start to question their own motives. To keep moral high, she held her head up high as she exited the elevator and entered the forward batteries.<p>

"Garrus." She said as she entered the room basked in an orange light.

"Oh hey Shepard. Sorry didn't see you there." Garrus said poking his head up from behind one of the barrels of the guns. "It'll be just a second, you know calibrations."

"You always seem to be busy." Shepard remarked, smirking slightly.

"You know, there will always be things that need calibrating." Garrus replied finally returning to his panel, "So what do you want to talk about?" He asked.

"I just want to know what you're thinking about." Shepard asked, "You know, about Earth and the Reapers."

"You were the one to witness it, I have only seen it through the vids, but it looks bad." Garrus said turning to face Shepard, "I'm sure you wanted to stay, didn't you?"

"It's hard leaving it behind." Shepard said nodding lightly.

"You made the right decision." Garrus said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "It may have been hard leaving Earth behind, but your going to return with the biggest fleet this galaxy has ever seen. You will beat back the Reapers."

"Thanks Garrus." Shepard said smiling, feeling the some pressure slowly lifted off her chest, "It's good to know I've still got someone behind me."

"What are you talking about? You've got the entire crew behind you. You have the entire galaxy looking to you for help. You're not alone in this battle." Garrus said setting his other hand on Shepard's waist, "And you have me fighting beside you, for better or for worse."

Shepard gave Garrus a quick peck on his mandible, "And I will always be at your side." She said smiling and wrapping her arms around Garrus' neck.

They stood for a few moments just staring into each other's eyes, losing themselves in the moment.

Joker's voice came crackling over the intercom, "Hey, hate to break up whatever's going on down there, but Hackett said he has an important message for you."

"Thanks Joker, I'll be right up." Shepard said releasing her hands from behind Garrus' neck and whispering in his ear, "We'll continue this later." Letting her fingers drag over the edges of his armor.

"Can't wait." Garrus said, his mandibles twitching.

Shepard casually walked her way up through the CIC and towards the Quantum Entanglement Device. Room, taking in the sights of the Normandy once again. Very little of it remained similar to the original Cerberus design. The layout had been altered and rooms had been completely reformatted. The new flooring and wires running across the floor and walls reminded her of her not-too-distant past with Cerberus.

As the door hissed open to the war room Primarch Victus greeted her. "Glad we cleared up the dispute with the Krogan, Commander. I am hearing reports that Wrex has sent multiple squads to Pavalen. I just wanted to thank you before I left to return to the home-front."

"It's been an honor having you aboard Primarch." Shepard said offering him her hand.

Taking it, Victus gave her a tight handshake, "You'll have our entire fleet at your command." He headed up the stairs. Pausing he turned back, "Thank you for everything you have done."

"Just doing my job." Shepard said. She made her way past the circular holographic table in the center and towards the QED room.

"Shepard," Admiral Hackett's raspy voice said through the static. His holographic body slowly materialized as the proper signal was found. "We've got a priority mission that needs you."

"What's going on?" Shepard said straightening and clasping her hands behind her back.

"We've just received intel on a location of a Cerberus defector. We need you and your team to pull him out of there. Alive." Hackett said as a holographic map appeared beside him.

"With all due respect, how do we know we can trust this defector? I mean he worked for Cerberus." Shepard asked concerned, "I won't put my team in harms way just to have them stabbed in the back."

"The defector has been trading information for his freedom. The intel he has been giving us has been key to anticipating key Cerberus ambushes and strikes." Hackett said his voice unwavering.

"Alright." Shepard said, "Send me the coordinates and I'll be on my way."

"This defector can be the key to winning this war against Cerberus. If he were discovered there's no telling what Cerberus would do to him. We need to get to him before Cerberus does. This is a priority mission that needs to be accomplished ASAP." Hackett reminded, "See to it that he survives."

"Yes sir." Shepard said snapping into a salute as the holographic image of Hackett faded then cut out. "Joker" She said, "I need you to set a path to these coordinates. This man is a mole in the middle of a Cerberus operation. If he were discovered there's no telling what Cerberus would do to him. We're pulling a defector out of Hell."

"It's always Hell isn't it?" Joker replied.

"Always seems to be." Shepard replied, ending the comm.


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: So here's chapter 2. It's a longer chapter and took a while to write and edit. Hope you enjoy.**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

Storm clouds brewed inside the atmosphere of the planet as the shuttle began to approach orbit. Shepard didn't know what awaited her on the inside of that storm, but she knew it would not be pretty.

"Where exactly is this place, Commander?" Cortez asked preparing the shuttle for the storm.

"Apparently this is a Cerberus base fronting as a shipping company. We have intel that our defector is hiding inside one of the buildings here." Shepard responded standing closely behind Cortez.

"I'd recommend that you take a seat Commander, this ride is going to get very bumpy." Cortez warned.

Shepard complied and secured her harness. Following in stride Garrus and James did the same.

"Anything else we should know?" James asked one of his eyebrows rising as a hint of suspicion grew in his voice.

"We're this defector's ticket out of hell. Under no condition do we lose him. Understand?" Shepard ordered.

"Yes ma'am" James and Garrus said.

"The night and the storm should mask our presence. Let's use this to our advantage and take Cerberus off guard." Shepard continued.

"We've got turbulence up ahead! Brace for the storm!" Cortez yelled from the cockpit.

The shuttle immediately began to shake wildly as it began to approach the docks, throwing Shepard around in her chair. The deafening roar of the rain against the exterior of the shuttle downed out any other noise. Shepard looked up and tapped her ear, signaling to Garrus and James to do a comm check.

"Check." They both tested, their voice coming over Shepard's comm. She gave them a quick thumbs-up.

The shuttle was then basked in a green light and the shuttle door hissed open. The extreme turbulence seemed to subside for a moment. Shepard took that opportunity and signaled to her team to stand up. They hopped out of the shuttle and into the storm.

Shepard felt the rain pounding against her head as her feet connected with the drenched platform of the docks. Gusts of wind, that came up from the enormous canyon that the shipping facility dangled over, almost threw her off balance, but she righted herself and found some cover.

"This is the closest I can get you without compromising your position. I'm going to set the shuttle down somewhere nearby!" Cortez yelled over the comms.

"Understood." Shepard said slowly walking forward. "Lets go." She said to her squad. There before them loomed the gigantic structure that was the shipping center. With it's sloped sides and part of it built into the hill behind it, it appeared to be built to withstand the worst of all weather. It looked like it was going to be tested today.

As they approached, Shepard slapped her Omni-tool against the door as it began to automatically hack the door.

"I managed to hack into the comm channels." Garrus said, patching it through.

"Have they detected us?" Shepard asked, as the door was keyed open.

"No it's silent." Garrus stated

"Silent? Isn't that a bit odd?" James said stepping inside and scanning the room.

There was nothing of interest inside. The floors and walls were bare, as if every shipment was taken out. A few benches and desks spotted the ground floor. But the thing that disturbed Shepard the most was the complete lack of sound as the door shut behind them. Only the soft squish of their boots sounded across the barren room. Waves of rain pounded against the glass outside, but none of the commotion that was going on outside penetrated the glass or the walls.

"Where is everyone?" Shepard asked, her voice echoing around the room.

"It's like they all packed up and left." James said, gun snapped into place in the crook of his shoulder, "Something's not right."

"You think they discovered that this base was compromised?" Garrus asked.

"That's unlikely. Come on we need to meet up with our defector." Shepard said waiving them forward.

Suddenly the lights shut off, leaving the squad in complete darkness.

A whoosh followed by the sound of the storm echoed from one of the distant doors opening.

"Get to cover and stay quiet." Shepard hissed over the comm.

"What just happened?" one of the two figures asked as they entered the room.

"Probably the storm cutting the power. Don't worry the backup generator will kick in soon." Another responded.

Using the blanket of darkness to her advantage she managed to get even closer to the two guards. She slid from cover to cover, careful not to knock anything over.

"I don't like this." The first guard chimed in again, "We could be stalked. Who knows? Maybe it wasn't the storm, maybe it was a Alliance team."

"You're just paranoid. The doctors said that might be a side affect. Just pull yourself together." The second one responded, trying to calm both of them.

There was a quick pop as the lights turned back on, illuminating the room once again. Both guards breathed a sigh of relief.

Shepard took a moment to get her bearings and found herself on the far left side of the complex. She would need to take either both guards out at the same time or take one out without the other noticing. She straightened as her Omni-blade extended. This may prove to be tough.

"Right. At least it's not in complete darkness. Man that still gives me the creeps." The other said taking the right path and skirting the boundaries.

"Maybe, but that new guy really creeps me out." The other guard said starting to take the right path and cutting though the center, "There's something wrong with his head. I don't know what's going on in there, but there is definitely something wrong with him."

"That's just a rumor." The one on the left chimed in, slowly nearing Shepard's position. Just as he finished the sentence, Shepard popped out of her cover and broke the guard's neck with one swift move.

"Garrus now!" She said over her comm and Garrus took a clean shot that passed through the other guard's scull. "Nice shot." Shepard remarked as she moved towards the exit, closely followed by Garrus and James.

"Cerberus Engineer!" James called out.

Shepard quickly snapped her head and saw a Cerberus Engineer hobbling its way, as if it was fighting against an invisible opposing force, towards the door. She instinctively ran for cover, but paused, as she heard no shots from the engineer's gun.

"Must be a side effect from the Reaper implants." James said, "Lets put him out of his misery."

Garrus casually lifted his sniper rifle and fired a concussive shot to the engineer's stomach. With a resounding wump, the engineer was thrown into a pillar behind him. The engineer let out a tired groan, all his strength leaving his body, as he slumped to the floor.

"That was odd." Shepard remarked, "I've never seen any of the Cerberus operatives act that strangely."

"Maybe he was one of the first batches of test subjects." James hypothesized.

"That doesn't seem like Cerberus." Garrus responded, "They usually only send their best troops into combat."

Shepard's Omni-tool beeped as they exited the shipping center and onto the docking platform, back into the storm. "Come on we're getting close, it shouldn't be much longer. Watch your step." She warned as they neared the edge. This platform was missing railing, probably for the purpose of easy loading and unloading.

"So where is this guy?" James asked his boots sloshing through the puddles of rain as they trudged onward.

"The manager's office on the far side of the building." Shepard said. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a small squad of Cerberus troopers walk out and onto the docking platform. The one in the lead twisted his head in the direction of Shepard and her squad. He paused for a moment, trying to make out the shapes thought the curtains of rain.

"Hey!" the guard yelled as he drew his gun. But before any of them could fire a shot or activate the alarm, one of the metal cranes collided with the entire squad throwing them off the platform and into the abyss below.

"What the hell just happened?" Shepard wondered out loud. She turned to see the same Cerberus Engineer they encountered up in an observation booth, vigorously hacking his way onto the systems. For a second the engineer looked directly at Shepard. Something inside Shepard reacted to the man. The engineer turned and walked in the same direction they were going, yet this time his actions seemed less labored as if the force he was fighting against had gotten significantly weaker.

"Looks like you recruited someone on the inside." Garrus said.

"Come on we're nearly there." Shepard said as they approached the next building's doors, the signal to her Omni-tool becoming stronger.

They entered the building and pressed forward, the signal becoming exponentially stronger as they turned every corner.

"He's in the next room, be ready." Shepard said, directing her squad mates to the sides of the door, expecting resistance. She keyed the door open and rushed inside. The entire room was empty, save for a freshly killed body, lying face down, in the dead center of the room a pool of blood spreading around him.

"Shit. That was probably our defector." James said dropping his gun to his side. As he began to pace, demoralized, around the room. Garrus and Shepard moved forward to examine the body. They both flipped the body over and moved in closer.

"No bullet holes. This man was stabbed to death." Garrus said pointing to the linear cut and stab wounds in the man's chest.

"Only one cut across the chest and one final stab trough the chest. Whoever killed him caught him completely off guard and finished him quick." Shepard said, "We need to extract whatever is on his Omni-tool. Garrus you think you can hack into it?"

Garrus nodded readying his tool. After a few minutes he chimed in, "No luck, there's too many firewalls and encryptions. You need someone who is either extremely skilled in hacking or someone who knows their way around Cerberus coding."

"Freeze!" James commanded as the door hissed open. On the other side was that same Cerberus Engineer, the chest plate of his armor torn and badly singed from the concussive shot. The engineer ignored James's command and fought his way forward. "I will shoot!" James warned, his rifle trained on the engineer's head.

"Stand down James." Shepard said, "This engineer helped us on the docks. I don't think he has any intention of killing us." James grumbled as he lowered his rifle, but he left it nested in his shoulder should a problem arise. Shepard turned back to the engineer, "Who are you?" she asked. No response. "Why are you helping us?" She continued to ask. The only response she got was labored breathing from behind the helmet as the engineer fell to his knees in front of the body.

With a quick wave he activated his own Omni-tool and began to hack into the defector's Omni-tool. Within a matter of seconds all the files were downloaded. The engineer began to prep the files for another transfer.

"How did you-" Shepard began.

A shot rang out, causing all of them to spin, but the shot collided with the engineer. The engineer let out an agonizing scream as electricity began to arc across every limb of his body. Shepard winced as the scream penetrated her memories. No, that couldn't be possible. Her memories were wiped away as her attention snapped to where the shot rang.

With a whimper, the engineer collapsed into the pool of blood, small streams of smoke rising up from the now incapacitated body.

"I never trusted him any way." A cool voice said from the other side of the room.

"You again." Shepard growled as she drew her pistol.

"I have no quarrel with you… yet." A greasy black-haired Asian man said stepping from the shadows. His cool demeanor radiated through the room as he walked forward. His limbs and eyes appeared to be fitted with cybernetic implants. He was fitted with a pistol and a shortened katana in his left hand. This man was perfectly fitted for a close-combat scenario. "I was sent here for one reason, and that wasn't you. He needed proof." Said the assassin.

"Proof?" James said not letting the assassin leave his sights.

"The Illusive Man must have staged this all. He was trying to find a mole in Cerberus." Shepard said

"Actually he waited for Alliance channels to light up. From there it was easy to track him down. Looks like your new friend here managed to get the rest of his information." The assassin said smirking as he reached down towards the incapacitated body of the engineer.

Shepard fired a shot that pinged off the assassin's armor. "Don't touch him." She warned, "You're not leaving here with him."

"I can't let you have this." The assassin said slowly backing off, his voice barely waivering.

"We are not leaving until we get the information." Shepard growled.

"Well I guess that's a shame. Then I guess you're not leaving." The assassin said pressing a detonator concealed in his palm.

With a deafening bang, the entire station shook. The assassin took the opportunity and fired a quick shot at the engineer's arm, destroying the Omni-tool in the process. Shepard took three disoriented shots at the assassin, but he easily dodged them and sprinted out of the building.

"What the hell just happened?" James yelled. Another tremor shook through the station as the gritting screech or metal-on-metal echoed.

"The building's going down! We don't have much time!" Shepard yelled. "Move!" James ran over and tossed the body of the engineer over his shoulder.

The team broke into a sprint towards the exit as it began to twist and tilt upwards at a steeper and steeper angle. Objects that were not bolted to the floors began to slide towards the ledge.

"Cortez we need extraction now!" Shepard yelled over her comm, as she dodged the falling obstacles.

"I heard the explosion." Cortez responded, "I'm thirty seconds way from your position."

They exited the building and onto the docking ramps as extraction drew closer and closer. More screeching was heard as supports gave way due to the immense weight of the station bearing down on them. It started to look like they didn't have those thirty seconds to spare.

"Come on Commander!" Cortez yelled as the shuttle swooped into view.

Shepard jumped off the platform and onto the shuttle, closely followed by Garrus and then James. Shepard lowered the body onto one of the seats and quickly took a seat as the shuttle quickly left the atmosphere.

"Did we get what we needed?" Cortez asked from over his shoulder.

"Not exactly." Shepard said as her eyes turned to the unconscious body in the seat across from her, "But we will get a lot of our questions answered."


	4. Chapter 3

**AN: Fought through a tough writer's block, but alas, Chapter 3 is here, and 4 is under way. Should be getting it up in under a week!**

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

Shepard busied herself inside the war room with checking up on her effective military strength, waiting until the next inevitable battle. She felt like she hadn't slept in days. Stress and exhaustion sunk their claws deep into her mind, more and more she had to force herself to stay active so that she wouldn't pass out. She kept reminding herself that every life in the galaxy rested in her hands, she wouldn't rest until she knew it was all over. The first step forward was with the new Cerberus agent they had acquired. Perhaps his knowledge and access to their system could give her the upper hand.  
>There was a light pinch in her mind as the curiosity took over. She wanted to be the first person to talk to the Cerberus agent. She headed out of her room and into the elevator.<p>

As the door hissed open she headed directly towards the medical bay.  
>"Commander." Chakwas greeted as she walked past studying her information pad.<p>

"How's he doing?" Shepard said, following her stride and into the medical bay. Three doctors worked around a bed obscured by multiple curtains.

"Not too well." Chakwas said, "We haven't gotten too far. The extreme amount of electricity that coursed through him caused some parts of his armor to melt and adhere to his skin. We're doing our best to work around that."

"That doesn't sound too good." Shepard remarked.

"You'd better see for yourself." Chakwas said stepping aside for Shepard to get a clearer view.  
>She stood there stunned; the man lay there with only the bottom half of his armor removed the upper half was badly burned and melted. Everything looked like it could be repaired without any permanent damage. The other doctors around the man busied themselves with trying to remove the last pieces of the armor before they could proceed with the recuperation of the man's body.<p>

"Have you gotten the helmet off?" Shepard asked pointing to the towel that draped over the man's head.

"Almost there." One of the doctors said as she slowly pulled a pair of scissors across the mesh armor that covered the neck. A light hiss was heard as the helmet was slowly removed.

Shepard's eyes grew wide as she recognized the man's face. "Sean?" She whispered astounded as his head came into view. It was the same oval face, the same square chin, the same dirty-blond hair. No. It can't possible. This was just another of Cerberus' schemes. They made one of their operatives look like Sean to infiltrate the Normandy without her noticing. But it was so familiar. She would be risking killing one of her former squad mates, but she couldn't be sure. She wasn't used to seeing him like this, lying on a table, almost completely devoid of life. He was missing something; perhaps it was his wavery demeanor. She needed to talk to him just to be sure, but she knew it wouldn't be any time soon. She wouldn't let her guard down, not quite yet.

"Commander?" Chakwas said appearing at her side.  
>Brought back to reality, Shepard turned to the doctor, "What is it?"<p>

"I just got the scans…" There was a momentary pause as Chakwas tried to form a sentence in her mind, "There appears to be something different."

"Different how?" Shepard asked.

Chakwas tapped on the holographic picture on her pad, magnifying the image. Shepard's brow furrowed as her eyes locked onto a metal object grafted to the spine. "We're not entirely sure what this is. Some of the doctors believed this could be a control chip, but there hasn't been any signal going to it or coming from it."

"There's a possibility it may have been overloaded when he was attacked by the assassin." Shepard said, "Is there a way you can remove it, just incase it is reactivated?"

"No. It would be extremely risky. It has been bonded directly to the spine. The only way to remove it would be killing him."

"Doctor. It appears that the chip is trying to reactivate itself." A nurse said from the operating table.

"What is it trying to do?" Chakwas said slowly looking through their medical supplies.

"It looks like it's sending a signal to his heart." the nurse said pointing to the scans.

"Doctor! His heart rate is climbing." One of the doctors yelled frantically moving around the table.

Chakwas quickly sprinted towards the table as Shepard heard the beeping of the heart monitor rapidly increase, like his heart believed he was running a marathon. Blood began to rise under the skin and pour out of his wounds as his heart began to unnaturally beat faster and faster. Blood began to pour off the table and onto the floor, causing Shepard's stomach to turn. She had seen gruesome scenes like this in battle, but seeing someone being killed by their own heart that they couldn't control just rubbed her the wrong way.

"For god's sake, find a way to short out the chip! He won't be able to last much longer!" Chakwas yelled from over the commotion. "Try another dose of the sedative, something to buy us more time."

"Prepping for overload." One of the nurses said. A strong electrical jolt went through Sean's body. His body tensed and jumped up, causing blood to spatter on the curtains and the doctors surrounding him.

"The chip is offline." One of the doctors reported, "and his heart rate is returning to normal."

"Alright, let's clean this place up and keep him under twenty-four hour surveillance, just incase Cerberus tries to pull off another stunt like this."

Shepard took her leave and exited the room. If that person under the mask really was Sean, he wouldn't give up without a fight.

"What's going on in there?" James said nodding towards the Medical bay.

"The Cerberus engineer almost died on us." Shepard responded slowly. Trying to let all the thoughts in her mind settle.

"I don't know if I'm just paranoid, but isn't it a bad idea to have the enemy onboard?" James asked his eyes not leaving the window.

"He's not the enemy. Yet." Shepard said.  
>"Well how can we be sure?"<br>"I need to know that he is the same man I met on Omega six months ago." Shepard said pacing back and forth in front of James.

"Are you sure?" James said, a worried tone creeping into his voice, "I mean he did work for Cerberus."  
>"I will not have you second guessing every one of my decisions, understand Lieutenant." Shepard snapped.<p>

"Yes ma'am." James said instinctively straightening his posture. He then walked off, returning to his cubby in the shuttle bay.

Garrus peaked his head out from the main batteries, "Anything I should know about?" he asked.

"We may be getting a new crew member." Shepard said collapsing onto one of the tables across from the med bay.

"The Cerberus agent?" Garrus said confused.

Shepard pursed her lips together as the thought about what she had just seen inside the med bay.

"Well, whatever decision you choose I'll be behind you." Garrus said resting an assuring hand on her shoulder, "But in the meantime you should get some rest. You've had a very long day and I don't think the Cerberus agent will wake up anytime soon."

Shepard nodded as she slowly returned to her cabin. She flopped onto her bed with a quiet poomf. She didn't bother disrobing; she just closed her eyes.  
>Within a matter of seconds she was out.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Keep the comments coming! I take every critique into consideration when I'm writing (plus it keeps me in the writing mood for a tad longer)<strong>


	5. Chapter 4

**AN: Back to writing! I do apologize for the large amount of time without an update. Lots of stuff was going on, but my schedule is more open now, so there'll be less waiting between the next few chapters. But until then here's the next one!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 4<p>

"Anything new with our patient?" Shepard asked as she once again reentered the medical bay. Shepard looked over at Sean lying silently on the table. Her eyes locked onto a blindfold over his eyes. "What's the meaning of this?" She said, anger rising in her voice.

"Some members of this crew are very wary of the situation of having an enemy onboard. We just blindfolded him to calm some of the rising emotions." Chakwas said, slightly concerned.

"I understand." Shepard said, the anger quickly draining from her voice, "The crew comes first. Next time warn me about this before. I need to know the crew feelings are surrounding the guest on this ship."

"Yes Commander." Chakwas said as she returned to her chair.

Shepard slowly exited the Medical bay. She was curious. Why was there such fear surrounding Sean? Her mind couldn't quite grasp it. She decided to go and see what Liara had to say about her feelings around having Sean on the ship. Shepard quickly crossed the hallway and found herself at the door to the former First Officer's cabin. As the doors silently, she stepped into a conversation Liara was having with Garrus.

"There's something about having a Cerberus agent on the ship that still bothers me." Liara remarked, slowly typing on her panel, "Even if he is a 'former' soldier."

"I don't know." Garrus said from over the comm. channel, "I think that no matter what Cerberus did to him, there's still a little bit of the Sean I know down there."

"I've even tried to get information on this 'Sean Mason' through my informants in Cerberus; there's nothing, almost as if he was a ghost. You may trust him, but if there is no trace of him in Cerberus' files, there has got to be something going on, perhaps with the Illusive Man." Liara responded, almost completely ignoring Garrus' statement.

"We'll have to see what Shepard thinks of this." Garrus replied.

The comm. channel cut out as Garrus returned to the main guns of the Normandy. Liara paused as she felt Shepard's eyes on her.

"Have you been here long?" She asked, her eyes not leaving the screens in front of her.

"Long enough to know what's bothering you." Shepard responded.

"I'm sorry Shepard, but I can trust him knowing he worked with Cerberus." Liara said, her eyes slowly leaving the wall of monitors in front of her.

"I understand that. I don't know if I can trust him either. I'm waiting to see if he's the same Sean that I remember before I condemn him."

"It's just- In times like these, we can't ally ourselves with the wrong people. One bad choice, and the entire galaxy is gone."

"But we can't be picky at a time like this." Shepard responded.

"I understand. I wasn't- never mind." Liara stammered. She pinched her nose between her thumb and her forefinger and slowly turned back to her wall of monitors, all blinking as new information continuously arrived. "Just give me some time to think." Liara said serenely and Shepard found her way out.

Curious on Garrus' thoughts she returned to the forward batteries.

"Hey Shepard." Garrus casually said, sitting on one of the supply crates casually drinking the turian equivalent of alcohol.

"I heard some of the conversation you were having with Liara." Shepard began.

Clearing his throat, Garrus responded, "So, I take it you want to know my opinion on this matter?" Garrus asked, resting his arms on his legs

"I just want to find where you stand." Shepard said, casually leaning on the railing.

"I just don't entirely understand why everyone onboard are so terrified of Sean. I mean, he's the last person who would willingly sign up with Cerberus after all they've done to him."

"I understand you conviction, but not everyone knows him as much as you do." Shepard reminded Garrus, "All they see him as is a former Cerberus soldier. They don't have as much confidence in him as you have."

"I guess so, but they have got to understand that he will be an important asset regardless of where his loyalty lies. So anyways," Garrus said, turning the conversation towards Shepard, "how are you feeling, you know, with this situation?"

"Too much tension is building up between the crew and him. If he doesn't wake up soon and agree to help us the Alliance will want him. And who knows what they'll do." Shepard said, worry entering her voice.

Garrus' eyes quickly dropped to the floor, "I don't think any of us want to see that." Garrus snapped his head up, an idea entering his mind, "Have you been in contact with Tali? If there was anyone who has a strong opinion on Sean it's her."

"I have thought of that, but unfortunately, I have not been in contact with her. The last I have spoken to her was the last time I saw her." Shepard said with a sigh.

"Lets hope he wakes up soon." Garrus said, returning to his drink.

* * *

><p>Shepard returned to the galaxy map. She turned and faced her computer screen that had a flashing green light, indicating she had a new message. Quickly scanning through them, Specialist Traynor spoke up, "The Dalatrass wishes to speak to you in the QEC."<p>

"Thanks Traynor." Shepard responded. Shepard snowly weaved her way through the war room and into the QEC. Slowly the image of the Salarian Dalatrass materialized in front of her, basking the room in a blue glow.

"Commander there is something we must discuss… If you're finished rewriting history." The Dalatrass said, annoyance obvious in her tone.

"I made my decision Councilor." Shepard returned, voice calm "There's not much anyone can do about it now."

"Yes we're going to have billions more krogan in the galaxy. It's a good thing you saved my life once, Shepard. Otherwise… well." She fired back at Shepard, "I have concerns about the human representative, Councilor Udina. My agents have discovered that he's using his authority to move vast sums of money. For what purpose, we're not sure."

"If Udina's dirty, it's best we get to the bottom of it fast." Shepard said, her grudge slowly dissipating.

"Agreed." The Dalatrass replied, "Come to the Citadel. We'll review this evidence and discuss this in private. Valern out."

As the image disappeared, Shepard couldn't help but wonder if picking Udina for the Council was the best choice, but her thoughts were cut short as the intercom clicked on above her.

"Commander," Chakwas' voice said, "Sean is beginning to awaken. I believe it is best for you to be here when he fully recovers."

"I'll be down there immediately." Shepard said, making a beeline to the elevator.


	6. Chapter 5

**AN: As I fall more into a schedule, here's another chapter...**

Chapter 5

Sean's eyes slowly flickered open. He was greeted by darkness and the sound of air passing through a ventilation system. He didn't know where he was, but wherever he was it felt claustrophobic. Taking a deep breath, Sean tried to move his hands up to rub his eyes, but they refused to move. He tried to lift his hands again, but a force clamped down on his wrist. Slowly as his eyes adjusted, Sean could make out the lines of woven cloth from the dim light shining through them.

"No." He whispered as only one scenario popped up into his head. Cerberus had him again. His breathing quickened. Sean had no idea what the Illusive Man would do to him this time, but he assumed it would be far worse. He had broken through the chip implanted in his brain and the Illusive Man would learn that he couldn't be controlled, and like a rabid dog, he would be put down. His eyed teared up as he felt his life leaving his body. His will had been completely broken. There was so much left that he wasn't ready to leave, Shepard, the fight, his mother, his brother, and Tali. He took a deep breath and leaned back, letting his emotions slowly sooth the inevitable pain.

He heard the doors whisk open and two pairs of footsteps sounded across the silent room. His eyes tried to lock onto the figures, but they were beyond his limited area of vision. The inevitability returned back into his mind, and with an inaudible sigh, Sean closed his eyes and prepared for what would happen.

As the blindfold was lifted, Sean's mind went blank. The sudden blast of light caused his eyes to clench shut and his face to scrunch up. He wasn't prepared for this. Slowly he blinked his eyes open, fighting through the pain and uncertainty. As his vision gradually returned to him, Sean could make out two figures, both women. Uncertainty and questions began to fill his mind. Was the Illusive Man not going to oversee his execution?

Instantly his attention was snapped back when one of the women spoke up, "Sean?" It had felt like so long, so very long since he had heard that voice, but he could not put a face to it, yet. Sean's breathing became staggered as the astonishment began to set in. He tilted his head up as far as his restraints would let him. "Sean?" the voice asked again. He didn't respond, he didn't know what to say. "Remove his restraints and lift him up." The other woman said. The woman slowly entered his view, but his vision was so blurry he could only make out one detail, the grey hair on her head.

As he was lifted, his body went numb. He let out a small groan of pain has he felt multiple joints readjust themselves with a distinguishable popping. The grey haired woman stayed close to him. He assumed she was running tests on him now that he was awake. His eyes readjusted themselves, giving color and shape to the figures.

His eyes widened as he recognized the figures before him, both of them.

"Sean are you-" one began

"Shepard?" Sean said, his voice raspy, but with a clear tone of astonishment.

A faint smile spread across her lips. "Glad to see you're memory is still intact."

Sean laughed in relief as a smile formed on his face. "I don't know…" Sean said, his face dropping, "I saw so much- I'm glad to be back. How did you get me?"

"Well what do you remember?" Shepard asked. She didn't want to give away too much information to Sean.

"It's hard to say." Sean said raising his hand to his forehead, "It was like I was watching someone control my body. Like I was living a nightmare. The chip in my mind was-"

"Wait, you knew there was a control chip planted into your brain?" Chakwas asked.

"Yeah, I was awake for the operation." Sean said, grimacing as the memories of the surgery returned.

"That sounds horrible." Chakwas said from behind him, still running tests.

"It was." Sean said, the pain of his memories entering his voice.

"Will I be returning to my quarters?" Sean asked, tilting his head slightly upward.

"Not right now. I need you to rest here until your fully recovered. Then when you feel better you can move yourself into the life support room.

"Life Support?" Sean asked, perplexed, "I thought Thane was living there."

"A lot has happened in the meantime. But right now rest." Shepard said, slowly leaving the medical bay, leaving Chakwas to her tests. An uncomfortable silence quickly arose.

"I take it Shepard doesn't entirely trust me." Sean said, breaking the stillness.

Sighing, Chakwas responded, "It's not just Shepard. Since Cerberus declared themselves as an enemy no one onboard has been comfortable having a Cerberus operative onboard, even if he is an ex-operative."

"But you don't believe that, right, Doc?" Sean asked hopefully.

"I trust you Sean, but it isn't me that you need to convince." Chakwas said packing up her medical instruments, "Now get some rest. Hopefully you can be up and running tomorrow and perhaps calm some of the rumors forming around you." Chakwas returned to her desk and typed something briefly on her computer, before turning to the door.

As the door shut, Sean let out a staggered sigh as he slipped back down to a laying position on the bed. "Right." He murmured. Being the odd man out, he knew that feeling all to well. He had been awake for only a few minutes, but he already missed Tali.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Sean groaned as he slowly placed his feet on the floor of the medical bay. His muscles were sore from weeks of not moving, yet they begged to be used. He stretched as he slowly plodded forward, instantly pain and burning sensations swept over his muscles, yet he welcomed it. It made him feel like he was amongst the living once again. He swung his arms around and gave himself a quick pat down. He remembered, he had nothing with him besides the clothes that were given to him when he was unconscious. It was like being on the Normandy for the first time, but not at all.

As he approached the doors he hesitated. He knew what lay beyond the doors, but he felt like he wasn't ready to confront it yet. He looked over to the doctor, quietly typing away on her console. As if she sensed something wrong with Sean, she looked up.

"Something wrong?" Chakwas asked.

"No." Sean lied, "Just taking my time." He put on a fake smile to convince her, and perhaps himself.

"Alright, but I do want to do a few follow up examinations in the next few days." Chakwas said returning to her screen.

"Alright." Sean murmured. His attention returned to the door. _It's just a simple walk. You don't even have to leave the floor, _he said to himself, trying to muster up the courage inside of him.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and into the Crew Quarters main lobby. As he walked forward, his eyes slowly scanned the room. Nothing seemed different about it; it was the same Normandy he grew to love. His attitude quickly changed as his eyes fell upon the crewmembers faces, he could see them scowl or furrow their eyebrows. They didn't want him here. Sean felt like his mere presence on the Normandy was an insult to the crew.

After what felt like a mile, Sean made it to the Life Support doors. He took a seat on the bed and exhaled a breath he had not realized that he was holding. He slowly leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and brought his hands up to his face. The Normandy had never felt so foreign and unwelcoming to him. It was worse than the first time he had been brought onto the ship, at least then he was wanted.

He looked down, and for the first time realized that his right, robotic arm had five fingers, not three on it that Tali had made for him. He let out a sigh as he felt his throat clench up. He missed her. A thought jumped into his mind, why not go down to engineering and say hi to her? Then the crewmembers' reactions returned to his mind. He didn't want to face that again. He would have to wait for her up in Life Support. She would come and visit, wouldn't she? His mind began to spurt out thousands of possible scenarios involving Tali and their relationship, and none of them good.

His head immediately snapped up as he saw the door to his room opening, his entire posture brightening. As his eyes fell upon Garrus, his body slouched and returned to a somber state.

"Expecting someone else?" he asked entering the room.

"Not really." Sean said clearing his eyes, "Though it is good to see a friendly face again. Right?" Sean said hesitating on the last word.

"Hey, even though I saw you in the Cerberus uniform I knew nothing had changed inside of you." Garrus said giving a small smile, "Though it did feel like you packed on a few pounds."

Lightly chuckling, Sean said, "You don't know how much this means. I mean it seems like everyone on this ship hates me." Sean paused, "And Tali?"

"We haven't seen her in the past six months. Your guess is as good as mine." Garrus said, his tone becoming more solemn.

A small silence grew, both of them unsure where to carry the conversation.  
>"So… Last time I was here, you and Shepard-" Sean began trying to change the direction of the conversation.<p>

"Still going steady." Garrus said looking back at the door, half expecting Shepard to enter.

"That's good to hear." Sean said pursing his lips, "You planning to make the last few days count?"

"It's just hard to say good bye, and I don't think we're both ready for that."

Another awkward silence filled the room for a while. Both Garrus and Sean looked opposite directions, almost afraid to say anything, but they both felt the elephant in the room and they both refused to acknowledge its existence.

"Yeah, well, thanks for being here." Sean said standing up and turning towards the window on the back wall.

"Alright, I'll let you be." Garrus said walking through the door and returned to the batteries.

Sean's mind chuckled. He always seemed to be drawn back to the Normandy's drive core. It was just the little bit of peace he could receive just by gazing into it. Something about it just seemed to help calm the chaos in Sean's mind. He let out a long sigh as he embraced his emptiness. He heard the doors open again, but didn't bother turning. He knew who it was.

"Hey Shepard." Sean said, his voice devoid of emotion. Slowly he moved from the window onto his bed, "So what? You're now going to grill me on what happened between me and Cerberus? Because I can tell you know, I had no say in the matter. Those were not my choices."

"No." Shepard said calmly taking a seat beside Sean on the footlocker that sat empty at the foot of the bed.

"Then… why are you here?" Sean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I just came to check in on you." Shepard said.

"It's just really hard." Sean said letting a long breath out after he spoke, "I always saw myself coming back onboard the Normandy, but not like this."

"I understand that adjusting to the new ship may take you a while." Shepard said, turning towards Sean as she spoke.

"A while?" Sean sputtered, anger welling up inside of him, "I'm already hated by the entire crew and I've only been awake for a day! I'm probably the last person they want onboard! They'd rather see me in the airlock!"

"Sean calm down." Shepard spoke, her voice calm but powerful, "The crew doesn't hate you, they're just uncertain. And in a time like this alliances are hanging on by a thread. You need to prove them wrong; show them that you may have been taken by Cerberus, but were never a part of them."

"Maybe," Sean said, not entirely convinced. "You just make it sound easy." A small smile formed on his face.

"Give it some time, but eventually you will have to leave the room." Shepard said grinning.

"I guess you're right there." Sean said letting out a small laugh. "Oh and hey, any chance we could swing by the Citadel or some place? I figure if I hang out in these clothes any longer no one would want to speak to me." He said taking a small whiff and grimacing.

"Sure. I'll tell Joker to set a route." Shepard said standing up, "Take care. I need you at your best."

"Give me time." Sean said, as the doors whisked shut behind her.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Sean's eyes snapped open as he bolted up from his bed, breathing heavily. His entire body shook as the cold pierced through his skin to his core. As the lights gently rose in the room he looked at his legs. They were bare. Confused he looked along the sides of the bed and eventually found his covers. He must have kicked them off during his nightmare. Returning them to the foot of his bed, Sean shivered once again. Everything felt so vivid. He brought his left hand up to his forehead as he swung his legs off the side of the bed.

He couldn't remember that last time he had had a good night's sleep. Nightmares just seemed to flock to him. Ever since he was a kid, his dreams were haunted by visions of his mistakes, his regrets, and his losses, but he never remembered any of this. He had heard of people having "visions" of the future in their dreams, but he always passed them off as coincidences or jokes. He had never had one himself. So he just sat quietly for minutes, puzzling over the dream. Even as he replayed it in his mind it made no sense. Perhaps it was just another side affect of his forced cooperation with Cerberus. Maybe it was something he had seen during his time under the influence of the control chip. Only questions arose in his mind, no answers. Sean shook his head, trying to remove all the thoughts.

Taking a deep and calming breath, Sean lay back down on his bed. Slowly pulling the covers back up to his face, he twisted to find a comfortable position. He lay for a while, eyes open, staring into the darkness, until his minds cleared and sleep took a hold of him once more.

.

There he was again, in the same dream. He wasn't a part of the action, more like an onlooker. He saw the Illusive Man talking to a black-haired man standing besides him. Sean couldn't hear voices, but he could tell from the body language that the Illusive Man was giving the black-haired man an order.

Almost as quickly as he blinked the scene changed. He appeared to be inside of a hangar bay, looking as hundreds upon hundreds of Cerberus troopers piled into ships. Going… somewhere.

Blink.

Another shot, a picture on an omni-pad entering his hand. It was a picture of a salarian in a cloak. He couldn't place its face to a name, but the salarian looked to be in its later years, perhaps a dignitary? He looked up. Before him stood The Illusive Man; he was pacing back and forth, not in an irritated manner, he just appeared to be explaining… something.

Pain shook through his mind. It felt like he had been electrocuted. He desperately tried to cling on to his dream, but he felt his mind being quickly pulled away.

Sean's eyes fluttered open. There it was, the same dream, but only half of what he dreamt the first time. Like he replayed the same video. Was that even possible, and why that dream? Sean's mind pondered the questions as he removed himself from the bed.

He picked up his robotic arm from the nightstand and quickly clicked it into place. Giving the arm a quick test run, he wiggled the fingers and rotated the wrist. Contempt, he slipped on the new shirt and pants Shepard had given him. Taking a seat on the sides of the bed he waited, for what, he didn't know.

His stomach growling at him angrily brought him back to reality. Lowering a hand onto it Sean paused. Shepard's words returned to his mind; eventually he would have to leave this room. Pain spread through his abdomen once again as he felt his stomach demanding food. Sean guessed now was the time he would have to brave the crew and their hatred for him once again.

Slowly Sean stood up and exited the room. As the doors whisked open, he took one careful step outside. He seemed to be in luck, the mess hall was empty, save for the chef and a very bulky man eating at the closest table to the kitchen.

Approaching the chef he asked timidly, "Still serving food?"

"Just about to wrap up, here's the last bit." He said scraping whatever was left out of the pot behind him.

"Thanks." Sean half whispered as he accepted the bowl.

"Hey, aren't you that Ex-Cerberus guy we just got." The chef asked.

"I never willingly worked with Cerberus." Sean said quickly turning his face away from him before taking a seat at the furthest table away from the chef.

Sean lowered his head so that the bowl of soup and the table were the only things in his area of vision. Quietly he began to eat his meal, careful not to draw any attention to himself.

"Hey new guy." The bulky man said moving closer to Sean.

_Great, just what I needed. _Sean thought. Sean's hand clenched around the fork he held in his hand, bending it out of shape. As the bulky man sat down across from him Sean could smell the stench of sweat emanating from his clothes.

"My name's James, James Vega. I encountered you back on the Cerberus shipping company." James said trying to start up a conversation. Sean didn't reply. "So… Cerberus, right?"

"I never willingly worked with Cerberus." Sean said through gritted teeth, his fists clenching, further distorting the shape of his metal fork.

"Touchy subject." James said, raising his hands in an attempt to calm Sean, "Alright… new topic. So… You've been with the Commander before?"

"Yeah." Sean said taking a deep calming breath, "I helped her stop the Collectors."

"So what made you leave The Normandy?" James asked, finishing his meal and pushing the tray aside.

"It was a difficult time in my life. I needed some time to sort some things out. I landed back on Earth for some R and R" Sean said, his tone returning to normal.

"I got you. From the stories I've heard about Shepard I'd probably need a break after that."

Sean let out a quiet, short chuckle, "Yeah."

"So were you on Earth when the Reapers attacked?" James asked.

"I heard about that, but no. I can't remember much from the time Cerberus captured me until the time Shepard rescued me, if anything it's fuzzy."

"Well you seem rather nonchalant about it." James observed

"Well… This isn't the first time I've not been able to remember something."

"Cerberus done this to you before?"

"Yeah. I seem to be their human guinea pig."

The Normandy lurched, cutting their conversation short.

"What just happened?" James asked.

"We docked at the Citadel." One of the crewmembers said rather confused.

"No, I know how the Normandy docks." Sean said, trying to scan the ship, in hopes of an answer, "That's not normal. I'm going to go check it out." He then ran into the elevator and punched in the CIC.

Sean pushed himself through the opening doors and onto the deck of the CIC.

"Commander, what's going on?" Sean asked, taking a moment to breath.

"Cerberus troops are on the Citadel." Shepard responded, rapidly suiting up.

Suddenly Sean's dream made sense. What he had seen was Cerberus preparing for an attack. The picture of the salarian, what did that mean? But more importantly, what did the Illusive Man hope to achieve from attacking the Citadel. Pushing all the questions to the back of his mind Sean made a move for an extra suit of armor but was cut short by Shepard's hand.

"I need you here." Shepard said.

"No, I need to be out there fighting." Sean retorted, anger in his voice.

"Sean, Cerberus is out there. They will stop you. I can't lose you, you're too valuable." Shepard said, her voice trying to calm the boiling blood in Sean's veins.

Sean took a sharp breath. He paused for a moment until Shepard's hand dropped, then, in a split second, lunged forward grabbing a vest and running out the door into the airlock.

"Sean!" Shepard shouted, but it was too late, the airlock doors had already shut, "Garrus, Liara! Get Sean back in here!"

They both quickly ran over to the panel next to the door. Liara began to furiously type, as Garrus tried to pry open the doors.

"He's already gone." Liara said as the doors hissed open moments later.

* * *

><p>As the airlock doors to the docking bay opened Sean was greeted with three armed Cerberus troops. Without a moment to spare Sean leapt into action. He sprinted forward and pummeled two of the guards to the ground before they could even squeeze the trigger. As he connected with the ground, Sean used his momentum and the shock of the ground to his advantage. He tore the gun from one of the Cerberus Trooper's hands and turned rolled to face the other trooper. By then the trooper had already opened fire, but to Sean's luck the shield attached to the armor pinged most of the shots harmlessly away.<p>

Jumping to his feet, Sean ran forward and further onto the docks. Before him Cerberus was quickly pressing through the lines of C-Sec officers. They were getting slaughtered, and in due time, the Cerberus troopers would have completely wiped them out, and sealed this entrance.

Sean took one more breath to concentrate his mind and senses. Scanning around he saw a weaker point in the attacking force.

He would have to break through that line of Cerberus troops and through the doors closely guarded by C-Sec officers. He closed his eyes and took a moment to plot out his path. The hiss of the airlock of The Normandy told him that his time was up. "Sean get back here! That's an order!" Sean heard Shepard scream. He forced his feet off the ground and sprinted ahead as fast as he could.

He barreled through the line, taking only a moment to yank another gun from the hands of a Cerberus trooper. Most of the troops jumped at the sight of a foreigner breaking through their waves. They moved to shoot at Sean, but were quickly mowed down by Shepard and her squad.

As he approached the door, the C-Sec officers did not open fire on him. It gave him pause, but not enough to stop him from sprinting through the opening doors.

* * *

><p>Shepard sighed as she saw Sean leave her sight. Sean's stupidity was not enough to separate her from her goal of getting to the Salarian Councilor; she would just have to let Sean do whatever he needed to and hope he didn't get killed or captured in the process.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Yes I know this isn't the same as the game. I find that if I take direct lines and scenes from the game it takes far too long to write. So I chose to take each scene and slightly tweak them up. That way it's something new that can keep me (and hopefully you guys) interested.<br>****Now I don't plan to do as major of a change to every mission I write; I just needed a viable reason for how Sean got on the Citadel.**


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Three pairs of boots pounded against the metallic floor of the Citadel as Shepard sped through the tight corridors. Sweat dribbled down her face and her hair slapped against the back of her neck, but she didn't notice. Her mind was focused on only one thing, ensuring the safety of the Salarian Councilor. Quickly checking behind her, Shepard saw that Garrus and Liara were still with her.

Screeching to a halt, the trio stopped at the door to the executor's office. All three of them plastered themselves to the wall, preparing for anything to be behind those doors. Taking a moment to catch their breath and focus their senses Shepard followed by her companions loaded new heat syncs into their guns. Giving a quick nod, Garrus reached over and keyed the door to open.

As the door quickly hissed open they burst into the room, guns drawn and fingers on the triggers, scanning all angles. Shepard let out a disappointed sigh. The room was empty and there was no sign of the Salarian Councilor. Garrus and Liara lowered their guns and began to scour the room for anything that could indicate the whereabouts of the Councilor. Quickly losing her motivation, Shepard leaned her head up against the cold glass, looking out onto an empty office area.

Inside the entire clutter of chairs and cubicles Shepard's eye caught something, a chair independently moving. Shepard's heart sped up as she saw the Salarian Councilor disengage his cloak. She turned and motioned for everyone to move out. Glancing back her eye landed on a newcomer. This dark-haired man was the same person she encountered in the Cerberus shipping site. Panicking, Shepard lifted her gun and fired two shots into the window, effectively shattering it. Leaping out the window, she landed with a thud on the ground floor. Quickly standing up, she raised her pistol to the man's head.

"You." She said, the hatred dripping from her voice. The man slowly and calmly moved behind the Councilor, who raised his hands in surrender.

"Hello there, Commander." He said, his voice cool. He raised his hand, powering up a built-in blaster.

"You have no chance." Shepard began as Garrus and Liara closed in, guns raised and pointed at the assassin, "You're out gunned."

"No." The assassin said slyly as a devilish grin spread across his face, "Now it becomes fun."

"Hey asshole!" a voice echoed from right behind the assassin. A metal pipe came crashing down on the assassin's hand, causing the shot to miss the Councilor and go wide. Taking this moment to escape, the Councilor retreated to safety behind Shepard.

The assassin growled, as he saw his target flee, and turned to face his new opponent. Sean appeared and hopped out of one of the cubicles, brandishing the pipe. He took another swing at the assassin, but this time he was prepared. The assassin ducked, dodging the pipe with ease, and brought a fist up into Sean's chin.

Stumbling backwards, Sean tried to lash out a few more times with his pipe, but to no avail, the assassin was already on him. In a few quick motions the assassin tore the pipe out of Sean's hands. Next, the assassin placed one punch on the center of Sean's chest, sending him careening into another cubicle.

Dazed and confused, Sean pulled himself up and raised his hands in an attempt to put up a fight. Lightly chuckling, the assassin approached, drawing his sword. With uncanny speed, the assassin managed to knock Sean's arms away from his chest, leaving an easy opening. Sean took one last breath and braced for the icy cut of the blade. But in a split second the sword was torn out of the assassin's hand. Growling again, the assassin glanced over to see his second attacker, a drell.

"Thane?" was all Sean could say before a quick punch from the assassin sent him hurdling into the wall. Sean's vision blurred as pain overtook his body. His eyes tried to

focus on his savior, but they were getting weaker every second. He finally gave in to his pain and closed his eyes.

* * *

><p>Multiple slaps across the face brought Sean back to reality. He tweaked his head and saw Liara standing above him, mouthing something. The ringing in his ears subsided and slowly sound began to return, her voice filling his ears. "-you alright?" was what Sean caught.<p>

"Hmm… whaa?" was all Sean babbled.

"Do you need Medi-Gel?" Liara asked, prepping a dose in her hands.

Upon the sight of the needle Sean's senses rushed back into him. "No! No, I'm fine." Sean stammered, slowly pushing himself into a sitting position. Looking around, Sean tried to find Thane. "Where- Where's Thane?" he asked.

"Thane's been stabbed by the assassin. I need your help. We need to take him to the hospital." Liara said extending her hand.

Taking her hand, Sean pulled himself up. His eyes blurred as his body adjusted to the fact that he was actually conscious. Carefully, Sean began to stumble forward after Liara. Sean let out a painful sigh as he doubled over as the bruises from his fight with the assassin filled his body with pain. Grasping onto a chair, he took a moment to collect himself. Looking up, Sean saw Liara turn a corner and disappear from his vision. Taking a deep breath, Sean jogged to where he last saw Liara, his body screaming at him to stop. As he rounded the corner his eyes fell upon Thane. His body sat in a pool of expanding blood; his breaths, quick and choppy. Sean knew if he did not receive immediate medical attention he would die.

"Oh god." Sean said breaking into a run.

"Come on!" Liara yelled slowly lifting Thane's legs.

"Alright, alright, alright." Sean wheezed, sliding his hands under Thane's shoulders. Thane gurgled something, sending specks of blood into Sean's face. "It's alright. We got you." Sean said, "We're going to get you fixed up. You'll be good in no time."

Entering the elevator, Liara hit the button for the fifth floor, the Huerta Memorial Hospital and the elevator lurched forward. As the doors hissed open, Liara and Sean burst through.

"We have wounded!" Sean did his best to yell. Instantly doctors turned from their notes and began to scurry around, prepping for their new patient. Helpers arrived at their sides and lifted Thane up and onto a gurney and wheeled him into the nearest operating room.

Sean doubled over, grasping his knees. "Do you think we made it in time?" he gasped. After he collected his breath, Sean slowly made his way to a chair and collapsed into it.

"I sure hope." Liara responded, wiping sweat off her forehead.

"Thanks." Sean murmured as a helper handed him a clean towel. Sean cleaned the blood off his hands and face and offered it to Liara. She waived him off.

"I hope Shepard gets that assassin." Sean said, glancing back into the hospital. Guilt began to run through him. Sighing deeply, Sean ran his hands over his face, through his hair, then clasped them behind his head, slowly lowering his head to his knees. He muttered something so softly Liara couldn't quite make it out, but she could tell he was hurt.

"Sean, are you alright?" Liara said, her voice smooth and soothing.

"If he dies it's going to be my fault." Sean said, his voice low and raspy.

"What are you talking about?" Liara said, surprised by Sean's comment.

"I could have helped him." Sean said, his eyes not leaving the floor, "But I just sat there."

"Sean, you were thrown against a wall. Thane knew what he was doing." She said, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I could've done something, not just sit there. I could have a stayed in the fight longer. I could've reacted faster. But I didn't." Sean murmured.

"Thane will be fine. Plus you're actions saved the Salarian Councilor. If it wasn't for you he probably would've been assassinated on the spot." Liara said.

"I just hope he makes it." Sean said, turning his head towards the hospital doors, regret filling his mind.


	10. Chapter 9

**AN: So here's my try at a dialogue heavy chapter hope it worked out well…**

* * *

><p>Chapter 9<p>

Sean stood quietly staring up into the core. He had done this many times before to receive the little bit of peace it seemed to radiate into him. He remembered how he could just spend hours on time staring up into it and almost completely lose himself in its aurora. But today wasn't the same, but how he wished it were.

Sean uncomfortably fidgeted and looked around the engineering deck. He was as he felt, completely alone. Sean deeply sighed and looked up into the drive core once again, hoping for, by some miracle, that he'd find something.

"I thought I'd find you here." A voice said from behind him.

"Hey Shepard." Sean said slowly turning around. Memories of the mission flooded his mind, "How's Thane doing?" he asked.

"Sean," Shepard began, slowly taking a breath, "Thane's dead. I was there when he passed."

"Damn it!" Sean yelled slamming his fist into the railing. Guilt swept through him as he immediately blamed himself for Thane.

"That's not what I'm down here for Sean." Shepard said, bringing Sean back into the conversation, "It's about what you did when we arrived on the Citadel. What the hell happened there?"

"Listen, I'm-" Sean tried to apologize.

"No Sean, you listen." Shepard said raising an accusatory finger to him, "As your commanding officer I expect you to respect my orders."

"Shepard, I meant no disrespect from what I did." Sean said raising his hands to try and calm Shepard.

"Then what did you mean? You disobeyed a command I directly gave to you. You not only made me look bad, but the rest of the Normandy's crew in the eyes of the Alliance.

"I- I…" Sean stammered, trying to force words into his mouth, but nothing came forth. He wanted to say something, he wanted to tell Shepard of his dream that lead up to the Citadel attack, but right now he was too stunned to say anything.

"What you did was not only completely reckless, it could have jeopardized the entire mission. Your stunt nearly got the Salarian Councilor killed." Shepard paused, taking a breath to calm her rising anger, "Sean you need to understand this: You're the only person we have that has a direct link to The Illusive Man. You may not know this, but you're extremely valuable in this war and I can't have you endangering yourself."

"I understand." Sean said quietly, his eyes not leaving Shepard's

"I need to know that you won't be doing this. I need to know I can trust you, and that you will follow my orders." Shepard said.

Taking a deep breath to calm his rapidly beating heard, Sean slowly spoke, "Yes ma' am. You have my word that this will not happen again." Sean said.

"Good to hear." Shepard said leaving the core.

Sean, completely stunned, watched Shepard leave Engineering. As the doors whisked shut he shook his head trying to kick-start his stunned mind. He had understood the gravity of the conversation and his actions, but what he couldn't wrap his mind around was the Shepard that stood before him during that conversation. He had never seen that person before. This was different than the Shepard he had seen back when the Normandy was in Cerberus' control, this was a Shepard created by the war, and this Shepard he was scared of.

Sean let out a sigh and walked away from the core. And here he was again, alone. He was lost and only one thing was certain, he needed a drink.

* * *

><p>Shepard entered Liara's room. Clean air filled her nostrils as she walked into the converted version of the Shadow Broker's base. Over forty screens flickered between galaxy maps and newly acquired information, but besides all the clutter the room was surprisingly clean. Shepard twister her head and saw Liara was frantically jumping from computer terminal to computer terminal while on call with one of her agents. She looked up and gave a quick wave recognizing Shepard's presence in her room before returning to business.<p>

"Greetings Commander." Glyph said, its automated voice speaking with a cheerful and peppy tone.

"Anything new for me?" Shepard asked the VI.

"You have some new messages at the terminal."

"I'll save them for later." Shepard said turning to Liara who was finishing her conversation.

"Busy as always." Shepard observed.

"You don't get a day off as the Shadow Broker." Liara remarked, "So what can I do for you Shepard?"

"I just wanted your thoughts on our last mission." Shepard said, adjusting into a more comfortable stance.

"The beginning of mission wasn't anything new," Liara began, her face becoming more solemn.

Seeing Liara's change of mood, Shepard pried, "But?"

"Well seeing Sean after Thane's..." She paused collecting her thoughts, "I just feel bad being so cold to him when he first entered the ship. Just when I say what happened- He just took Thane's death so personally, I just couldn't- It's hard to say this, but I think I was wrong about Sean." Liara said, her thoughts everywhere at once.

"Well, everyone makes mistakes. And in Sean's case, he boarded this ship as an enemy, so your thoughts weren't alone." Shepard said trying to reassure Liara.

"I just let my personal feelings about Cerberus cloud my judgment of Sean's character." Liara sighed, resting her arms on top of her computer screen. There was a long pause as both of them waited for the other to start up a different conversation

"On a completely different note, I did find those files on Sean." She added tapping away at her computer, "It took a lot of digging, but he originally worked for the Alliance. Birth name: Alex Dean."

"This is nothing new to me." Shepard said shrugging contently.

"But how? Did Sean tell you?" Liara said confused.

"Not entirely." Shepard began, "When he first showed up he remembered nothing of his past. But somehow his past caught up to him. Turns out he was a Cerberus experiment. They tested a control chip in his brain."

"That explains his being captured by Cerberus again." Liara thought out loud.

"Yes, and one mission lead to another until we returned to Sean's place of origin."

"Do you think he remembers the labs? Did he get any information out of it? I mean, that information on Cerberus could be pivotal to the war." Liara said, her head perking up.

Shepard chuckled a little, "Sure. The lead doctor there gave him everything. I'm sure he has it stored somewhere. Try talking to him, he'd probably be more than willing to help you out."

"That would be great. Thanks for the chat Shepard." Liara said as she returned to furiously typing on her computer.

* * *

><p>Sean sat alone at the bar in the lounge area of the Normandy trying to cure his loneliness through alcohol. He slowly swirling his drink in his glass looking deep into it. The effects of the alcohol hadn't quite hit him yet. Though no matter what Sean drank, he still couldn't find the answer in the bottom of any of the glasses. But right now he needed something to get his mind off of that. Sighing, Sean leaned back against the wall.<p>

The doors hissed open and in walked Garrus.

"Didn't expect you here." He quipped, "Well anyways. How are you?"

"Eh." Sean said taking another swig of his drink, "Still a bit shook up."

"Hey, if this is about Thane, he knew what he was doing. I saw him in action a few times, I guess his disease finally caught up with him." Garrus said walking towards the bar.

"No I'm past that. I'm just a little bothered that I served on the same ship, but I never really got to know Thane that well." Sean said returning to an upright position.

"Well he knew you enough about you to come in and save you." Garrus said.

"Yeah." Sean sighed, "You want something?" He offered.

"Sure I'll have whatever you're having, but in Dextro."

Sean reached over the bar and poured Garrus a quick drink, "And to saving my life I owe him."

Garrus lifted his glass, "To Thane."

"To Thane." Sean repeated, clinking his glass against Garrus' before chugging the rest of the liquid down.

Wincing, Garrus said, "Well on a more positive note your heroic actions on the Citadel did not go unnoticed."

"What do you mean by that?" Sean said raising an eyebrow.

"Someone may have leaked that you stepped in and saved the Councilor." Garrus said grinning, "and it looks like the crew of the Normandy may be warming up to you now."

Sean lightly punched Garrus in the shoulder. "You loud-mouth." Sean said smiling, "and to that I owe you."

"I'll put it on a tab." Garrus chuckled.

The two continued to talk as they shared a few drinks.

Shepard smiled as she left the room unnoticed. It was good to see Sean smiling once again. He needed a friend in this time, and it seemed like Garrus was.

Shepard slowly returned to the Galaxy map. If Sean needed his mind off of the events at hand a little bit of action would help. Shepard scrolled through her mail at her private terminal. _Perfect _She thought as her eyes fell upon a new assignment. She sent the coordinates to the cockpit and stepped down from the map. She entered the elevator yawning and keyed the Capitain's Cabin. Her rest was long overdue.


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: Took a while but here's the next chapter. A quick mission, but more will be coming up soon!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 10<p>

Sean took a staggered breath as his eyes shot open. His heart raced and cold sweat formed on his body. The nightmare was in his mind, but only partially. Like a book with it pages torn out. But at that moment only one thing stuck in Sean's mind and it terrified him.

_No. No, it couldn't be. Not again. Not this time._ Sean thought. It wasn't the same as the last one, but it was all there. The look at Cerberus' plans, the troops lining up and shipping off, but this time there was more than just that. His head swirled as he slowly stood up, making his way to his dresser. Groggily he clothed himself and shuffled his way towards the door. Today just didn't feel like his day. Yawning, he keyed open the door. He gasped and stepped back, startled to see Shepard just outside his door.

"Didn't expect me?" Shepard asked.

"You could say that." Sean said, trying to brush off the awkwardness of their meeting.

"Were you in the middle of something?" Shepard asked.

"No. I just woke up actually. Was going to grab something to eat." Sean said stretching.

"Well quickly get some food inside of you, we're going planet side in forty minutes." Shepard said, her omnitool materializing from her wrist.

Startled, Sean asked, "What's going on?"

"Remember the shipping facility we got you off of?" Shepard asked. Sean nodded. "We tracked a shipment directly to Noveria."  
>Sean's mind searched for a connection between Cerberus and Noveria. Instantly it stopped and his eyes grew wide. "No." he said looking Shepard directly in the eyes.<br>"The same place." Shepard said nodding.

"But I thought it was abandoned, that we cleared it." Sean said trying to make sense of it.

"Well whatever happened Cerberus is back inside and they're using it as a full fledged fighter base." Shepard said.

Sean pinched his nose with his middle finger and thumb. He didn't want to return, not with his history there. His past of being brutally used as Cerberus test subject had been quietly locked away in the back of his mind, he didn't need to relive it. He opened his mouth to protest, but Shepard beat his to the punch.

"I your history here, and I have told Alliance command about what has happened inside that lab. They replied with new orders. They said that they want the lab decommissioned," Sean eyes slowly returned to Shepard's, "permanently."

Sean couldn't help but show his relief, "You got it Commander."

* * *

><p>The bitter cold of Noveria bit at Sean's face as he stepped out onto the metal landing pad of the Cerberus lab. The entire place still felt like a dark cloud had settled over it. It was one of the darkest points of his life, and he still wasn't entirely ready to see it again. Here was where his best friend was executed before his eyes. At least this was the last time he would ever see this place again, hopefully he'd get some closure from the rubble this place would become. He shivered as his eyes traced the outlines of the enormous place before him. Pushing the butt of his rifle against his shoulder, he scanned the area and proceeded forward.<p>

"It's empty." Sean said rather confused, lowering his gun and walking towards the cargo area.

"This isn't right…" Shepard said, thinking out loud, "Hackett said that scans showed this facility alive with movement. Why now? What's going on?"

Sean traced the outline of one of the cargo containers. The rusty metal scratched against his gloved finger. Another memory of his dream flashed back to him.  
>"Shepard don't!" He yelled as Shepard moved towards the main door. Sprinting back to her position.<p>

Immediately stopping, mid stride, she turned back to Sean, "What's the meaning of this?" She asked, her voice borderline suspicious.

"Cerberus. They trapped this area. The door." Sean sputtered. Shepard returned with a confused look. Sean pushed them behind one of the structural support beams and inched his way closer to the door. Reaching his hand forward, he activated his omnitool. He keyed the door open and dove behind another support beam.

The doors rumbled as their motors slowly warmed and began to separate slowly. As the doors opened just a mere two inches apart a loud bang sounded. Shepard and Liara jumped as the explosion from behind the doors sent them flying past Shepard and into the cargo crates behind them.

Sean shook the stars from his eyes and gingerly stood up. As the ringing in his ears ceased he looked back at Shepard, she only stared back at him.  
>"Sean, what was that?" She said, skeptical.<p>

"There's no time. We need to go. They already know we're here." Sean said turning to run inside.

Reaching forward, Shepard grabbed hold of Sean by his collar. "What happened back there?" she asked harshly.

Sean sighed. He knew this would eventually happen. "I saw this happen." Sean said.

"Go on." She said not letting Sean go just yet.

"It was in my dream. This entire scenario." Sean said taking a deep breath, "I saw Cerberus setting up a bomb behind those doors."

"From a dream? This sounds a bit far fetched." Shepard said. Sean could feel her disbelief sinking into him.

"I know." Sean said running a hand through his hair, "That's what I thought too. But that's how I saved the Salarian Councilor."

"Sean this has nothing to do with that."

"No. It has everything to do with that." Sean said, desperation evident in his voice, "The night before the Citadel attacks, I had a dream. In it I saw Cerberus planning for an attack. I saw the Illusive Man talking to that assassin, showing the Councilor as his next target."

"When were you planning to inform me about this?" Shepard asked, trying to make sense of the entire conversation.

"Soon." Sean said, near panic, "But we need to go now. They're taking them out!"

"What out?"

"Reaper artifacts! That's why they came back to this lab! The fighter base is only a front!" Sean yelled.

"Alright lets move!" Shepard ordered, "This isn't over Sean."

The trio ran into the labs and quickly dispatched the Cerberus troops that waited for them inside the lobby. Inside the alarms blared and the thunder of boots pounding on the ground echoed throughout the facility. Sean let a sigh seep out from his lips as he scanned the room looking for the load bearing walls, eager to finish this place off once and for all.

"Commander? Come in Commander." Cortez's voice crackled over their headsets.

"We read you Cortez. What's the problem?" Shepard said looking around the room for any sign of where to go.

"EDI says she's reading some spikes in some… Well I'll just have her tell you."

"I'm picking up a signal from the base's defensive turrets capable of shooting down ships in low orbit. " EDI's voice said clearly over the comm., "If reprogrammed this base could serve as a powerful foothold in this system."

"Understood, I'll keep a look out for the controls. Shepard out." Shepard paused as she weighed the consequences in her mind. Taking control of this base would give them a strong foothold in this system, but if Sean was right about Reaper artifacts being held in this base the possibility of it falling into the wrong hands could be devastating.

"EDI are you picking up any Reaper signals?" Shepard asked.

"No commander." EDI replied. Shepard glanced back at Sean who seemed to be in almost a sleepwalking state. "But my scans can only read the uppermost floors of the base. There is a possibility of some being deeper inside."

"Understood. Keep me posted." Shepard said ending the comm. channel, "Alright, we're moving deeper into the base, I want to find out exactly what Cerberus has been up to in here."

"Deeper?" Liara asked confused, "Weren't we supposed to just destroy the base?"

"Destroy it or not, we need to know what we're up against. Especially from a power like Cerberus." Shepard responded. Liara and Sean both nodded and fell into stride behind Shepard.

* * *

><p>Sean knew exactly where Shepard was headed. It was the same path he had followed his first time. Walking down the same hallway that he walked through on his quest for answers of his previous life. He thought that there was a possibility that if he were to never focus on those memories that they would eventually fade away to nothingness in time. But being here now, it felt like salting a wound.<p>

Shepard pushed open a door and quickly entered the room, followed by Liara. Shepard and Liara both circled around the new equipment there examining whatever was on display and possibly radioing The Normandy, but Sean didn't care. He just meandered through it once again taking in another room from his past. This room, this place, this was where he confronted the man personally responsible for making Sean what he was today. He took in a staggered breath as his eyes fell upon a bloodstain on the floor. Sean fell to his knees and put his hands over the stain. There, this exact spot, this was where he held his friend as she slowly had the life sucked away from her. Emotions he couldn't explain welled up inside of him. He brought his hand up to his eyes and tried to cover the pain on his face, but to no avail.

Shepard turned from the Reaper artifact. She saw Sean kneeling before the dried puddle of blood. She saw his face contort as memories returned to him, probably some that he kept bottled up inside.

"Shepard?" Liara said quietly.

"This is the lab." Shepard said her eyes slowly falling to the ground, "The same lab Sean was experimented on in. We came back here. He wanted answers, but when we arrived the doctor in charge of the project had his friend captive. In an attempt to get Sean to return to the person they created him to be he executed his friend before his eyes. That was where he watched her die."  
>"Oh." Liara said, pain entering her voice, "I had no idea. I didn't know-"<p>

"I understand Liara." Shepard said putting a hand on her shoulder. Now there wasn't a doubt in her mind. This lab needed to go.

Sean looked up slowly, his eyes red. Slowly Shepard and Sean's eyes met.

"Come on. I think you've had enough of this place." Shepard said offering him a hand.

"For a lifetime." Sean said taking hers and pulling himself up, "So now what? Reprogram the turrets?"

"We're getting rid of this place." Shepard said reaching into the pack she had brought along.

"Shepard?" Sean said perplexed.

She pushed a pair of explosives into his hands. "Come on." She said giving a comforting smile.

* * *

><p>Sean slowly stepped onto the drop ship. His emotions were jumbled; he didn't exactly know what to feel. On one side he was leaving a place that defined what he was today, a place that shaped his very outlook, but on the other hand he was erasing one of the hardest moments of his life.<p>

"Take us back out of the blast radius and wait." Shepard commanded.

"Sure thing ma'am." Cortez responded.

Once they reached a safe distance Shepard moved towards the window on the side. Sean looked up from his seat and at the giant cement building that only seemed like a spec on that mountainside.

"You ready Sean?" Shepard asked. Sean looked up at her quizzically. "I want you to do this." She said handing over the detonator to him. Sean took it and waited. He felt the weight in his hand and had to pause before he could make the final decision.

Standing up, Sean walked to the window beside Shepard. He felt his finger around the button, and then with one hard squeeze he pressed the button. The charges did exactly what they were supposed to. The base quickly crumbled in on itself. Sean sighed as he watched nature then take over as the facility and his past became buried inside the mountain.


	12. Chapter 11

**AN: Sorry for the infrequent updates, but my schedule has been rather hectic. Still I really appreciate all the follows, favorites, and reviews. Keep it up and stay awesome!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 11<p>

Shepard paused before exiting the elevator. She was headed to talk to Sean about the events that happened at the Cerberus facility on Noveria. She was worried about Sean. He hadn't entirely been himself. It seemed like she saw a different Sean every day.

Slowly exiting she made her way to Sean's room. The doors opened for her and she made her way quietly into Sean's room, inside he sat hunched over his disassembled weapon. The last time he was on the Normandy when something was wrong he would fiddle with the workings of his weapon to keep his mind off of it. At the moment he sat with both hands covering his face.

"You alright Sean?" Shepard asked waiting by the doorway.

"No I'm not." Sean said shaking his head, "It's not really important right now. You're here about the mission right?"

"Yeah. You have time to talk?" Shepard asked trying to get the calmer Sean.

"I don't have anything better to do." Sean angrily said.

"You want to tell me what was going through your head on that mission?" Shepard asked still standing.

"There's not much to say." Sean curtly said.

"There's plenty to say." Shepard said, annoyance growing in her voice, "Like these dreams about the mission. How they somehow helped you save the Salarian Counselor and us from the trapped door. Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"Because you would've though I was crazy; some random side effect from the implant or something." Sean said, "I didn't want to give you guys another reason not to trust me. I thought I could make it look like my instincts led me there, or something more reasonable."

"I don't understand Sean, have I given you a reason not to trust me? I've had your back ever since I met you."

"N- I- I don't know. It's just right now I don't know who I can talk to right now. One moment you're after me siding with Cerberus, the next moment you're yelling at me for saving your life. You don't know what this feels like, to try and do something good and still be hated. I'm trying to show people my true self, someone that's better than what they think I am." Sean almost yelled, anger steadily growing in his voice.

"Sean you've been anything but yourself. Every time I see you I see a different person. With so many emotions fighting inside of you that can't be a good thing. I'm worried about your wellbeing."

"You don't know what's going on. You don't know what I've been through."

"No I don't, but I'm willing to help, help to get the Sean I used to know back."

Sean leaned his head back and sighed deeply, "I appreciate the thought Shepard, but I need to do this on my own. Give me some time to become myself again."

"Just try and let out some of that anger elsewhere. Ask around, I'm sure there are other people willing to help."

"I'll keep that in mind." Sean said, turning back to his workbench and ending the conversation.

Shepard sighed as she left Sean's room. She understood where Sean was coming from. He felt alone and he couldn't do anything about it. Earlier when he served on the Cerberus-controlled Normandy Sean had Tali. She seemed to be his anchor, someone that could help calm his chaotic mind, and someone who could bring out his inner peace.

Shepard looked up and spotted James cooking something in the Galley.

"Hey James, can I speak with you for a second?" Shepard said moving up to the counter.

"Sure thing Loco. What's on your mind?" He said quickly glancing up from his pan.

"I need you to get Sean to do something. He's destroying himself in his room." Shepard said resting her hands on the counter.

"Um…" James hesitated, "Why would I want to get involved in that? No offence."

"Not like that James. He's just a mess. And being cooped up in his room isn't helping. You're closer to Sean. Give him something to do, to keep his mind occupied.

"Alright." James said slightly confused.

Shepard watched quietly from the window above the docking bay. James had done a good job of keeping Sean's mind busy. He sparred for a while with him and offered him his punching bag for use. Below she could see Sean putting that punching bag to good use, even testing it's strength.

"Commander." An electronic voice said from behind her.

"How's it going EDI? Any new questions?" Shepard said glancing to her side at EDI's robotic body.

"At the moment just one." EDI said turning her attention to the bay below, "It's about Mr. Mason."

"Oh?" Shepard said turning to face EDI, "What about him?"

"I don't understand the way he's acting. He almost appears to be mentally attacking himself. The way he is locking himself in his room for days on end. That can't be good for him."

"Well right now he just feels lonely and he has no one to help him."

"But why would he be lonely? I've seen him bond with Vakarian and even share a few moments with Dr. Tsoni. He would be anything but lonely."

"It's not entirely like that. He is drifting right now. He feels like he doesn't have a purpose."

"Wouldn't stopping the Reapers be enough of a purpose?"

"It is, He just doesn't feel like he has anything to fight for. He feels like there's nothing waiting for him after the war. He just needs something or someone to live for."

"Like Tali?"

"Exactly, he's just too caught up in his emotions to realize that."

"Thank you." EDI said as she turned for the elevator.

"Any time." Shepard said back.

* * *

><p>Sean threw out a flurry of punches at the bag. Each one accompanied with a strong emotion. With each punch he felt a bit more alleviated.<p>

How he was always fearful

Thwack

How he could have done something

Thwack

How he wasn't there when it counted

Thwack

How he could have fought back  
>Thwack<p>

His anger and strength became stronger as the worst of his emotions began to rise. A punch combined with his emotion or hatred of himself pushed him over the edge. His right fist tore through the outer cover of the punching bag and embedded itself deep inside. Sean paused as he slowly returned to normal.

"I'm sorry." Sean said surprised. He quickly pulled his hand out of the bag and sand began to pour out of the new hole. "I- I'll buy you a new one." Sean stammered

James let out a surprised laugh, "Don't sweat it. I guess you needed it more that I did."

"Well… Thanks any ways." Sean said running a hand across his sweaty forehead. Sean slowly exited the bay and headed for his room. He flopped onto his bed and breathed a long sigh of relief. He couldn't believe how much Shepard was right. He did need this. He even felt a bit better.

The door hissed opened and Sean poked his head up.

"Hello Mr. Mason." A robotic voice said.

"EDI?" Sean said sitting up and getting a good look at the new robotic body.

"I- Jeez- I need to get out more. That is new right?" Sean said pointing at EDI's body.

"Yes. I acquired this new form on Mars." EDI said giving a curt nod.

"Um… so uh… what can I do you for?" Sean asked standing up.

"I've noticed that you have appeared very depressed over the past few days and thought you may want something to cheer you up."

"Uh… what?" Sean said, completely lost.

"As I recall you and Miss Zorah were together the last time you were on the Normandy."

"Yeahhh…" Sean said still unaware of where this conversation was headed.

"I thought that you might need something to help you through this war." EDI said handing over a holographic frame.

"How did you get these?" Sean asked flipping through the photos already downloaded onto the frame.

"I took a few parts from the camera feeds. I hope they are to your liking." EDI said turning to leave.

"EDI?" Sean said looking up from the photos.

"Yes Mr. Mason?" She asked turning around.

"Thank you. I really appreciate what you've done with all this."

"You're very welcome." EDI said, a hint of a smile on her face. She then turned and left the room, leaving Sean alone with the pictures.

Sean couldn't help but smile as he looked through the pictures. He paused as he came across one, a picture taken when Tali first gave him his robotic arm. In the picture he held Tali high in his arms, a huge smile on his face, and though he couldn't see it he could tall Tali was smiling as well. Tears began to well up in his eyes as memories of that day filled his mind. He hadn't felt this way in a long time. Wiping some of the tears away, he set the picture frame on the table beside his bed. His stomach felt like an empty pit. He tried to stand up, but he felt sick. He lay back down on his bed. The emptiness inside of him overwhelmed him. He wished that Tali could be here, here to help him forget his pain. But nevertheless he was glad EDI had given him the pictures, because now he had found his motivation.


	13. Chapter 12

**AN: Well , this one took me a while to write, almost 4000 words in this one! I can say that the next few chapters will be more frequent because I have had them planned in my head. But until then enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 12<p>

Shepard quietly walked around the Crew deck observing the peace. She took a long deep breath in and her tensed body relaxed a bit. Taking a seat, she stared forward blankly, letting her mind wander, not thinking about anything relating to the war. It wasn't a common thing she did, but when events became harder and harder, she realized she needed it more and more

"Hey, Commander." Garrus said as he casually exited the battery.

Blinking back into reality, Shepard turned and responded, "Hey Garrus. How are you?"

"Me? I've been doing fine. Though it does get a tad lonely by myself… up in the battery… alone…" Garrus said grinning, letting a few not-so subtle hints drop into the conversation.

"Is that a little bit of desperation I hear in your voice?"

"Well you know…" Garrus began, his voice becoming solemn, "In times like these, I can't help but think about the ones I care for. And if all this goes south, it would be an awfully different galaxy without-"

"Garrus, we are going to make it through this, and we'll be sitting at a bar getting free drinks and telling stories of how crazy it was." Shepard said cutting him off.

"And we can live off of the royalty from the vids." Garrus chuckled, his normal demeanor returning. "So… heard back from the Fleet?"

"They just messaged me a couple minutes ago. We'll be meeting up with the Admirals in a few hours." Shepard said double-checking with her omnitool.

"Speaking of which, how's Sean doing? Last I saw him it looked like he was going to meltdown."

"Actually I haven't seen him at all today." Shepard said glancing at Sean's room door, "I was going to ask you the same question."

"Well, one thing's for certain: he will definitely be feeling better by the end of the day." Garrus said smiling.

"That he will." Shepard said nodding in agreement.

* * *

><p>Sean stared up into the drive core like he had done many times before. He watched as the purple aurora danced around the core so fluidly. He felt lost in it, but it wasn't like the other times. This time, though, the core seemed to radiate better feelings into him. It seemed like the events from yesterday had a calming effect on him. He had gotten a good nights sleep and everything, even his demeanor, seemed to be brightened. He smiled lightly as he looked up into the drive core and felt himself become soothed by it. Sean simply stood there, hanging on to the railing.<p>

"I thought I would find you down here." A familiar voice said from behind Sean.

Sean's head slowly lifted up as his brain began to register the voice. He quivered as he turned around slowly. His eyes fell upon a person that he felt like he hadn't seen in centuries. Disbelief struck Sean like a car. He couldn't move his legs and his mouth hung open. "Tali?" He finally managed to say, his voice trembling.

Tali chuckled as she quickly walked forward and embraced Sean. She could feel his heart leap as she pressed her chest up against his.

It took Sean a moment for his brain to start up, but when it did, he hugged her back tighter than ever did before. For Sean, time seemed to freeze at that moment of sheer ecstasy.

Sean couldn't believe it. It felt like a dream to him, but everything was so real. Everything about her he welcomed back, the soft material of her hood, the cool touch from the metal of her helmet, and the skin-like fabric of her suit. Sean gently put his fingers under Tali's chin and lifted her head up so that their eyes met. Sean couldn't help but beam as his eyes fell upon Tali's piercing silver eyes. He then pulled her close again.

"I- I- Ju- How-" Sean tried to stammer, but he was quivering so much that he couldn't speak.

"Shepard just docked with the Flotilla. She kept it quiet so that it could be a surprise." Tali said leaning back to look Sean in the eyes.

"This- this is like a dream." Sean said laughing.

"Let's hope it's a good one." Tali teased.

"With you it always is" Sean slowly let go of the embrace.

Tali twisted in Sean's embrace then paused, "Upgraded your arm?" she asked tapping Sean's robotic arm.

"Long story." Sean said quietly, looking away and completely releasing Tali from his grip and leaned up against the railing, burying his face in his hands.

"Does this have anything to do with the Cerberus story Shepard told me?" Tali inquired, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Tali you have got to understand that I didn't willingly go back to them." Sean said pain filling his face.

"I did worry." Tali said slowly lowering her arms, "But what I just saw, I know you are the man I fell in love with. There's no doubt in my mind."

"Thank you Tali." Sean said letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"But what did happen?" Tali asked, curiosity in her voice.

"They jumped me on earth and brought me back to their base. The Illusive Man said he was going to get me to work with them no mater what." Sean said moving closer to Tali, "Then Shepard rescued me. And now I'm back with the gang doing what matters the most."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But it does show one important thing."

"What's that?" Sean asked, his head slowly raising.

"It proves that no matter what Cerberus may try to do, they'll never be able to control you. Your better than they could ever make you."

"Thanks, Tali." Sean said, slightly blushing, "But I'm back and that's all that really matters. So uh… what's new with the Floatilla?" Sean asked, trying to strike up a normal conversation.

"Well, um, when I returned they, the fleet, asked me to become an Admiral, to take my father's place." Tali said rather sheepishly.

"An admiral? That's great! So what now? Are you in charge of the fleet?" Sean said, finding it hard to contain his surprise.

"It's mostly a formality, because of what I know about the geth."

"Don't sell yourself short. You deserve this. I couldn't think of anyone better."

"Thanks." Tali said, looking Sean in the eyes.

Sean tried his best to casually lean back on the railing. "So, what brings you back to the Normandy?" he asked.

"The Admirals." Tali paused on that word and quickly replaced it, "We are getting ready to take Ranoch back."

"Ranoch? I thought the quarians were against that idea. I can't believe you guys are trying to do this. It could be suicide!" Sean said shocked, "And you're alright with this?"

"You don't think I know that it could be suicide?" Tali said, frustration entering her voice, "I have an entire fleet to look out for! The pressure is just so…" Her voice trailed off.

Sean paused, immediately regretting what he had said. He pulled Tali's tensed body close to his, "Hey. It's going to be all right. Plus you chose the best person for the job. Shepard will get you your planet back. And I'll be by your side, always. I promise."

"Thanks Sean." Tali said, "Thank you for being here."

"Thank you for giving me a purpose." Sean said pulling Tali close to him.

"Sean, Tali, I need you up in the CIC we're readying a team to hit the dreadnaught." Shepard's voice piped in from over the speakers.

"The admirals are…" Sean began not entirely trying to ask a question.

"On the Normandy with us." Tali said, "So if you wouldn't mind, could we keep this quiet around them?"

"Your secret is safe with me." Sean said smiling.

"Thanks." Tali said, giving him a quick hug, "Come on Shepard will be waiting for us."

* * *

><p>Sean slowly looked from side to side. The geth ship he was on board felt eerie. He couldn't pin it to anything in specific, but the whole ambiance disturbed him. The absence of life, the sloping corridors, no oxygen, the list went on and on, but with Shepard and Tali at his side he felt safer.<p>

"The dreadnaught operation center is just ahead." Tali said approaching the door.

"Good. Let's shut down the Reaper signal and get the fleet out of here." Shepard said.

Immediately as the doors opened the trio rushed inside. They were greeted with shots from geth strategically placed around the room, forcing Sean, Shepard, and Tali into cover. Sean peaked over the cover in time to see all the geth dissolve into nothing.

"What the hell just happened?" Sean asked out loud sticking his entire head above the cover. Sean was quickly yanked to the ground by Tali.

"Geth Hunters are moving in! Stay down!" Tali yelled.

"What the hell am I supposed to do if I can't see them?" Sean said back.

"You wait." Shepard replied calmly.

Sean peaked around the cover and saw a flicker of light off of a near invisible surface. Rolling out of cover, Sean fired off a quick overload in the general direction of the flicker of light. To his surprise, a geth materialized, electricity arcing across its body, immobilized. Sean unleashed a flurry of bullets from his Mattock, quickly taking down the geth. After the geth collapsed to the ground, Sean relaxed his body. An unexpected shot to the gut caused Sean to lose his balance and stumble to the ground. A geth de-cloaked above him, lowering the barrel of its shotgun towards Sean's face. Sean flinched as a shot blew the geth's head clean off, spattering the face of his helmet with white coolant liquid.

"Clear!" Shepard yelled. From across the room.

Tali replaced the position the geth was formerly standing in. "Need help?" She asked offering her hand to Sean.

"Looks like I owe you one." Sean said taking her hand and pulling yourself up.

"Looks like the time with Cerberus got you rusty." Tali teased.

"Well excuse me for not being able to see _invisible_ geth." Sean quipped back. Sean and Tali moved up to the control panels where Shepard was waiting.

"Can we shut down the signal from here?" Shepard asked pointing towards the holographic model of the dreadnaught.

"No luck. They've locked down the signal. We need to get to the drive core." Tali said her omnitool materializing, "And now the geth have sealed all bulkheads to block us off."

"It's never easy is it?" Sean said leaning back against one of the panels.

"Anything you can do?" Shepard asked pulling up schematics of the ship.

"Well we're stuck in here. We need to get the doors open." Tali said furiously working on the panel and her omnitool, "We need something to override the ship. Perhaps… if we could fake a thermal warning we could release all the locks on the emergency doors."

"Do it." Shepard said.

"Be ready. The geth will take notice of this." Tali said.

After Tali had finished typing the last line of code, the holographic image of the ship began to glow red. Sean twisted and turned and saw one of the doors panels turn from red to green. "That got it!" Sean said moving forward, "Get ready, here they come!"

Sean popped up and quickly tore down two of the geth entering the room.

"Watch out! They're coming from the ceiling!" Tali said over the sound of gunfire. She too rose from cover and began to blast the geth with her shotgun.

After the last geth fell, the room became eerily quiet.

"I guess that's the rest of them." Shepard said, "Lets move." She stood up and jogged towards the door and Tali followed in stride.

"Tali…" Sean said caution in his voice. His omnitool glowed as she turned to him. With one quick punch, Sean drove his omniblade and fist through the chest of a cloaked geth standing right behind Tali. "We're even now." He said smiling.

"Not quite." Tali teased. They both quietly laughed as they ran to catch up with Shepard.

* * *

><p>"We're almost at the signal." Shepard said as they neared a locked door at the end of the hall. Tali assumed her position at the side of Shepard and pressed her hand against the locked door. Moments later the door slid open. In front of them stood a tall shaft with a large elevator in the center, a clear, and almost easy, path to the signal.<p>

"I locked the door. No geth should be able to get in behind us." Tali said typing onto her omnitool.

Shepard pressed on forward and keyed the elevator. The elevator hissed and slowly ascended. The entire team let out a collective sigh as they relaxed. The mission was almost over. Sean glanced from Tali to the door, and then back again. He still couldn't believe it. Tali was back, and he was going to help her retake her home world.

As the elevator neared the top floor Sean heard the ticks and chatter of the geth. Snapping his gun into his shoulder, he noticed two rocket wielding geth enter through the 'locked' door on the ground floor and fire at the elevator.  
>"Oh shit!" Sean said bracing. Shepard and Tali looked back at Sean as they rushed to the platform, just in time to see the rockets fly at the elevator. The rockets collided with the base of the elevator stumbling Sean. The elevator groaned and cracked as it began to shift out of place.<p>

"Sean!" Tali yelled leaning out over the ledge, "Take my hand!"

With out thinking, Sean sprinted towards Tali. He felt the ground of the elevator shift and drop from under his feet. With one final push, he leaped from the falling elevator and reached for Tali's hand.

"Got you!" Tali said as their hands locked together. She and Shepard helped Sean up and onto the platform. "I though I'd lost you."

Sean rolled onto his back gasping for air. "Getting a little rusty with your hacking I see." Sean wheezed, "Next time I'll lock the door."

"And would that involve shooting it?" Tali asked, already knowing the answer.

"Don't judge." Sean smirked.

"I know you too well." Tali said smiling, "Any ways, we should be close. It should be around this corner."

The group plodded on forward. Reaching the door they stood side-by-side staring up at it.

"Be ready, there could be anything behind this." Shepard said drawing her gun from her back.

"Right behind you." Sean said, following suit. Tali nodded and raised her shotgun.

Shepard hit the button and the doors flew open. They charged forward into the enormous room that lay before them. From the looks of it, the entire room seemed to be built around one central object, the drive core. Unfortunately thick metal blast shields covered the core.

"Can we get these shields open?" Shepard asked.

"On it." Tali chimed in.

A deafening roar sounded as the room began to shake. The screeching of metal-on-metal caused them to cover their ears in pain. As the shields opened the trio tried to peak at what lay behind them. As the shields fully lifted, they stood in shock.

"Shepard, Commander." A robotic voice said.

"Legion?" Shepard said in disbelief, "What happened?"

"Shepard, how do we know we can trust Legion?" Tali asked, "The reapers are using him to boost their signal, for all we know he could have volunteered."

"Your caution is understandable, but we did not freely give up this unit to the Reapers." Legion chimed in.

"I know how it feels." Sean said stepping forward and looking at Shepard, "You know I was under the same scrutiny you're putting Legion under. Its been with us through the Collector base, if that doesn't give you a reason to trust him, then I don't know who you can trust."

"This is different this time, Sean. Legion is an AI. It could have gotten hacked. This could not be the Legion we knew." Shepard said glancing at Sean.

"If freed we will submit to any restraints you deem necessary." Legion said.

Sean gave an irritated look towards Shepard; shaking his head he slowly turned his back to her.

"So if I get you out of there, the Reaper signal will be shut down?" Shepard asked.

"You'll need to release me using the hardware blocks on the other side of the room." Legion laid looking in the direction of the panel.

Shepard quickly ran over and began to type on the holographic keyboard, searching for a way to turn off the machine. "Got it!" she said.

"This is Admiral Tali'Zorah, the signal is about to go down." Tali said turning and getting ready to leave.

"Hardware blocks are offline. We are free." Legion said moments before the mess of tubing began to automatically disconnect from him. With a thud, Legion dropped to the ground one floor below them. The trio ran to the edge and looked over. Legion nodded his head in approval and the glowing orb that used to contain him quickly shrunk to nothing, then an instant later exploded outward.

"Kelah." Tali said jumping, along with the other two.

"As a gesture of cooperation, we have disabled the dreadnaught's drive core. All weapons and barriers are offline." Legion said shifting his stance below them. "Alert! Geth Reinforcements incoming!" The group turned to run as geth began to drop from the ceiling.

"Shit! Primes!" Sean said jumping behind cover. The geth Primes slowly rose and trained their guns on the area where Sean, Tali, and Shepard hid behind. "Any ideas?" Sean asked, leaning towards Tali.

"I could hack one of the geth rocket troopers that dropped in with them. Get it to fire upon the Prime, giving us an opportunity to take it down." Tali said prepping the hack on her omnitool.

"Sounds like a plan." Sean said, readying his rifle, "On your go."

Tali popped out of cover and swung her hand out quickly. Sean and Tali both watched as the rocket trooper straightened, trying to adjust to the new code entered into its brain, then turned on the Prime and began firing.

Tali and Sean quickly glanced at each other, and then with one quick nod they sprinted forward, closing the gap between them and the Prime. They plastered themselves to two opposing pillars and watched as their hacked rocket trooper began to lose the fight between it and the Prime. Peaking out from their cover they opened fire and sent a wave of bullets at the Prime.

Overwhelmed by the fire, the Prime picked up the rocket trooper and flung it in Tali's direction then slowly began to move forward.

"Tali, I need one more distraction, I think I can take it down." Sean said peaking his head out of the safety of the pillar. "Now!"

Tali nodded and activated her attack drone behind the Prime, causing it to turn around and begin attacking the holographic turret. This gave Sean just enough to take it down. He sprinted up behind it, extending his omniblade. With one quick motion, Sean lunged into the air and grabbed hold of the Prime.

Startled by what just happened, the Prime began swinging back and forth, trying to knock Sean off, but he refused to let go. Sean then began to stab the blade into the Prime's neck over and over again, until it collapsed to the ground.

"Woo!" Sean cheered in victory, standing over the Prime.

"Sean move!" Tali yelled, but it was too late for Sean to react. Before Sean could even speak the Prime detonated, sending Sean and shrapnel flying across the room. Sean sailed into a wall and crumpled to the floor.

Sean forced his eyes open and tried to make sense of the situation, but it was too early. The explosion had left him beaten, disoriented, and deaf. He tried to shake the effects off, but to no use. He let out a sigh filled with pain as he let his pain take hold of him, but only for a moment. He wouldn't let this stop him. He needed to power through. He needed to do this, not just for himself, but also for Tali.

Sean cringed as he lifted himself up, he could feel the effects slowly wearing off. As the ringing in his ears slowly subsided a pair of voices arguing over his headset became audible.

"Raan, the dreadnaught is helpless. We can remove the flagship if we strike now!" one of the admirals said.

"What are you talking about?" Tali exclaimed, "We're still onboard!"

"We can't waste this chance." Gerrel said, his voice monotone, "Take out the dreadnaught."

"They're not really going to open fire are they Commander?" Sean asked taking position next to Shepard.

"I don't want to be onboard to find out." Shepard said beginning to jog forward, "Tali, Legion we're getting off of this ship. NOW!"

All of them nodded in understanding and sprinted forward. They just cleared the room as Admiral Gerrel's voice entered their headsets again, "All ships open fire!"

The dreadnaught shook as it began to take the bombardment. Inside Shepard, Tali, Sean, and Legion were thrown around the room like dolls. The fire ceased for a moment as the attacking ships reloaded.

"To the fighter bay! Move!" Shepard yelled from behind Sean as the ship began to crumble apart. "Shepard to fleet: Hold fire! I repeat, hold fire!" Shepard tried in desperation.

"They're not responding!" Tali yelled back over the din of explosions and metal scraping across metal. Legion sprinted ahead and began to prep the fighter for takeoff, but before the rest of the squad could catch up, a huge hunk of the dreadnaught's hull tore open, destroying the path to the fighter. The torn hull threw Shepard, Tali, and Sean off the platform and careening into the one below.

"Shepard, we can only use the fighter from the upper level." Legion said politely

"I got that! Come on! Double time it!" Shepard yelled as they neared the fighter.

One more shot to the hull caused the trio to fly forward, with no chance of stopping.

"Normandy to Shepard, I'm reading a loss of gravity, are you OK?" Joker asked over the comm.

Shepard and Sean bounced off of each other as they floated towards the ship. Sean reached out and grabbed Shepard by the wrist, then, desperately tried to grab onto something. His hand, miraculously, hooked onto the side of the ship and jerked them to a halt.

"Fine. We're leaving in a geth fighter." Shepard said, anger welling up in her voice, "Transmitting rendezvous coordinates."

Shepard, followed by Sean, slowly pulled herself up the hull of the fighter and into the cockpit. "We're here. Lets move!" Shepard said as she and Sean floated into a seat. The fighter shook itself to life and quickly jumped out of the crumbling dreadnaught.

"Holy shit! How did we survive that?" Sean said looking behind him at what was left of the ship.

"It doesn't matter." Shepard hissed, "We made it out, and the Admirals are going to hear about it."

"Man…" Sean said in disbelief, "I mean we went out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Sean turned slowly to Tali, their eyes met and Sean gently put his arm around her, "Looks like we're going to Ranoch."


	14. Chapter 13

**AN: A short chapter, but it's building up to probably one of the longest chapters I've written. Don't worry Action is on the way! (should be up in a week or so)**

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><p>Chapter 13<p>

"I still can't believe it!" Tali said, rapidly pacing around the room, her mind everywhere at once, "Tomorrow we're going to go to Rannoch. We're not even ready for this stupid war. In a time like this we need everyone we can get. If these people die in the war…"

"Tali, It was bound to happen. It's better for it to happen with Shepard's help than without it." Sean said as he sat cross-legged on one of the couches in the lounge room. He watched Tali meander around the room.

"This was supposed to be my father's job, not mine. I'm not ready for this." Tali said, the pressure setting in.

Sean stood up and made his way over to Tali. Taking her shoulders in his hands, he looked Tali in the eyes, "Tali you can do this. Show your people that they have something to live for, something to fight for."

"It just seems like Rannoch is so far away. Tali said taking Sean's hands in hers, "I'm just lost." She lowered her head, almost completely giving up.

"Hey. When you get Rannoch back you can finally build that house you had talked about.

"Our house." Tali corrected looking up into Sean's eyes Sean, "And it'll be beach-front."

Sean chuckled, "Better find a plot and stake it quickly, it'll be a buyer's market." Tali laughed, and then slowly stood up to leave. Sean noticed and he looked up at her, surprise entering his eyes. "Tali would you mind staying a bit longer? I'd just like to catch up, talk a bit longer." Sean asked a little disappointment in his voice.

"Do you think it can wait a bit? I need to go be with the Admirals." Tali asked, turning back towards Sean.

Sean paused as he weighed what he wanted to talk to Tali about in his mind. "Alright." Sean said letting a sigh out.

"I promise we can talk more after this stupid war is over. I promise." Tali said walking back to Sean and laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Go. Go protect your people." Sean smiled back, giving Tali's hand a quick squeeze.

The doors slid shut behind Tali, and Sean leaned back and let out a deep sigh. He would have liked to talk to Tali, he wanted to tell her how much she meant to him, how much he needed her, but he did understand. Her people needed hope, they needed something to fight for, and Rannoch was just what they needed. When the quarians took back Rannoch they would be ready for this war. And he would do everything in his power to make sure Tali had something to fight for, to come back to. Until then, Sean lay back on the couch and relaxed.

"Lady problems?" a voice asked entering the lounge. Looking up casually from his comfortable position on the couch, Sean saw James enter the room and move towards the bar.

"What makes you say that?" Sean asked trying to sound like he had no idea what James was talking about.

"No sense in hiding it, Garrus already spilled the beans." James said, smirking slightly as he poured a drink for himself.

"Blabbermouth." Sean muttered rolling his eyes, "and an answer to your question: kind of."

"And by 'kind of' you mean definitely." James corrected Sean.

Sean pursed his lips together. Damn it, James was dead on. There was on sense in hiding it any more. "Well I'd just like to spend a bit more time with her, you know? This whole war has gotten me thinking." Sean said.

"I got you Romeo." James teased.

"Hilarious." Sean shot back.

"Hey I just call it as I see it." James said taking a quick shot of his drink, "So what happened between you two? Met her back when the Normandy was Cerberus controlled?"

"Basically." Sean said, "There's not much more to say."

"Not much more? Garrus told me you nearly died for her!" James scoffed.

"Then why don't you ask Garrus?" Sean retorted.

"Because it's fun to watch you squirm." James laughed.

"Well…" Sean began, "We went out on a recon mission with Shepard into the Collector base. Everything felt off in that place, it as like we were in the inside of the hornet's nest, but we went further in, and as my feelings predicted, it turned out to be a trap. Collectors swarmed in and attacked us on all sides. We were taking hits and forced into cover. My shields were dead, but when I saw one of them train their gun on Tali, I just reacted."

"And you took the hit for her." James interjected.

"You make it sound so simple." Sean said smirking, "The beam from the gun cut through my armor and into my skin. It felt like getting cut with molten metal." Sean recalled shivering, "And it gave me this scar." Sean lifted his shirt to show the wide scar stretching from the bottom of his right shoulder to his hipbone.

"Ooh. That must have not been pretty." James winced.

"Yeah, but as fate had it that day, that wasn't the end of it. I couldn't remember anything after that, but as Shepard and Tali told me: The beam kept going and cut into my gun, which had a primed concussive shot in, setting it off. That tore off my arm." Sean said waiving his right, robotic, arm.

"Wow…" James said, "She must have been really special."

Sean nodded, "She still is."

"Then I wish you two well." James said slapping Sean on the back.

"I appreciate it." Sean said.

Sean quietly watched James downed his drink, but all he could think about was what was going to happen on Rannoch. The Fleet seemed so dead-set on taking it back, but Tali was in the middle of a nervous breakdown. What really waited on that planet?

"Anyways, I'll see you around." Sean said standing up, "It was nice talking to you."

"Likewise." James said giving a quick wave before turning back to his drink.

* * *

><p>Shepard waited in the war room for the mission debriefing from the Admirals. After being shot at by friendlies on their prievous mission, she wasn't quite ready to hand over her cooperation to the fleet, much less Admiral Gerrel.<p>

"Shepard." Tali nodded as she entered the war room, a noticeable pep in her step.

Shepard smiled, knowing where, mostly who, the pep came from, "Tali." She responded, "I take it you're getting used to the new Normandy."

"It's nice seeing familiar faces." Tali said, smiling behind her mask.

The three admirals entering the room cut their conversation short. Slowly they made their way to the holographic map in the center of the room.

"To start off, we would like to apologize for Admiral Gerrel's premature attack on the dreadnaught. We all agree that he acted completely out of line and ask for your forgiveness." Admiral Raan said.

Shepard glanced over to Admiral Gerrel who was staring at the terminal, avoiding eye contact with her. She raised her eyebrow, well not everyone agreed. "You still have my support admirals," Shepard said resting her arms on the sides of the holographic map, "But I will not put up with any more of this, I will not stand idly by as my team is attacked by our allys."

"We understand Commander, and we assure you that this will never happen again." Raan replied.

"Good, now let's get down to business." Shepard said.

"Of course." Raan pulled up a hologram of Rannoch. "We have collected some data through multiple scans from the Reaper controlled side of the planet. Signals emanating from this area give us good reason to believe that multiple cannons, capable of crippling our ships if they were to get into the planet's upper orbit, have been constructed around their bases. Destroying these guns would allow us to better assist our troops on the ground, giving us the upper hand in this war."

"So you're just asking us to blow it up?" Shepard asked.

"Precisely."

"Couldn't you just take a shot from here?"

"Not with accuracy. The geth have set up multiple jamming towers that don't allow us to get a proper lock on the position."

Shepard rolled her eyes. It always seemed to end up like this, "Understood. So I'll be taking a team down to destroy the cannons?"

"Yes, but we will be sending our ordinance expert with you as well. You will meet up with him onboard the Rayya. He will take you in one of our drop ships to the cannon's location." Raan said, the holographic map outlining the route.

"Sounds straight forward." Shepard commented.

"We can have a ship ready to take you to the Rayya whenever you and your team are ready."

"Sean, get ready, we're headed to Rannoch." Shepard said opening a quick comm. channel.

"Rodger that, I'll be up ASAP." Sean immediately responded.

"We're ready." Shepard said, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.


	15. Chapter 14

**AN: Thank you for your patience. There was so much that happened in this chapter I wanted it to be perfect and that meant tacking on a few more weeks to the update time. I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 14<p>

Sean looked around as the shuttle's doors opened to the Rayya. He took a steady step forward, remembering the time he had spent here before. Nothing much had changed onboard, physically that is. The entire ship gave the air of emptiness. Back when he had been brought aboard for Tali's trial the halls were filled with voices and bodies discussing their days and important events, living. Now a lone quarian would occasionally skitter out of one door and into another. Everything seemed so lifeless.

The quarian that transported them from the Normandy to the Rayya led them through the ship and into the shuttle bay. The shuttle bay, like the rest of the ship, appeared rather empty, save for a few drop ships and engineers doing maintenance and repairs on a few of the stationed drop ships. In the far right corner of the bay sat their drop ship. As instructed, they slowly made their way across. The group approached the drop ship and settled down, waiting for their escort.

Breaking the silence, Sean said "looks like I'm back on the Rayya. So much for being banned."

"As far as I remember, you were only banned from the court proceedings." Tali said smiling. A loud thump behind them cut their conversation short and caused the trio to jump. Coming into view a red-suited, quarian stepped out from behind the ship.

"Hello." The quarian said, rather timidly, "I'll be your demolitions expert." He politely nodded his head and continued to prep the ship.

"And you are?" Shepard asked.

"I apologize. I am Vass'Droa vas Rayya." He said, "It is an honor being able to work with you Commander."

"So how much experience do you have under your belt Vass?" Shepard asked trying to find out a bit more.

"I was a member of the scouting team that originally landed on Rannoch. Our intel helped in the decision to retake our planet." Vass said, doing one last sweep around the shuttle, "I was still the explosives expert, but most of our missions were very covert."

"I wasn't aware that the quarians could afford a team like that." Shepard responded.

"There wasn't much to start with. Each of us was hand selected by the admirals for this team. Our only goal was to decide whether we had a chance to get Rannoch back or not."

"And what made you decide that it was worth the risk to take it back?" Sean butted into the conversation.

"We knew that it would take many lives, but it was a now or never situation. If we didn't strike soon we could never take back Rannoch." Vass continued as he walked to the open hatch.

"And you were part of the battle plan?" Shepard asked.

"Not exactly. Like I said: we were just a recon team. We pointed out key structures and positions that could help us win this war."

"And the cannons needed to be the first to go in order for us to achieve air superiority." Sean said

"Exactly." Vass replied, "Now if you all are ready let's get this ship moving. The faster we take down those cannons the faster we can get this war over with."

The group nodded and hopped aboard. The ship roared to life and smoothly exited the docking bay.

"So do you need any clarification on the mission Commander?" Vass asked.

"I think it's pretty straightforward." Shepard said taking a seat.

"So what? All we do is head on in and blow up the cannons and fly away?" Sean asked, surprised that the mission seemed so simple, "Why do you even need us?"

"It's not nearly that straightforward." Vass shot back, annoyance in his voice rising because of Sean's naivety, "This is the first strike of the war. We needed the Commander because this mission needs to go off without a hitch."

"Got it." Sean muttered, looking away from Vass.

There was a momentary silence as the ship slipped its way through space towards Rannoch. Sean looked outside at the planet quietly. His mind wandered as he began to think, about him and Tali. A small smile quivered its way onto his face and he turned to look at Tali, who was looking out the window.

"You ready Tali?" Sean asked, leaning in close to her.

"I think so. Rannoch…" She said, her voice trailing off.

Sean tried to smile, but he could almost feel the pressure Tali was feeling, "Be sure to pick out a nice spot for the house."

"Don't worry I'll find a perfect spot." Tali said, moving her hand over to Sean's. Sean took it and squeezed it tightly.

Time seemed to pass quickly as they approached Rannoch. Sean smiled as he felt Tali's hand twitch in excitement as they neared the planet.

"Alright we're entering orbit, get ready." Vass called out from the front.

The shuttle shook as it entered the atmosphere of Rannoch. Suddenly it lurched to the side, then lurched again and threw them back the other way. The overhead lights dimmed in the cabin and the dull red glow of the emergency lights illuminated the room the best they could.

"What's going on?" Shepard called up from her seat.

"The cannons. They're firing upon us! Hold on!" Vass yelled throwing the ship into multiple evasive maneuvers. A loud crunch was heard from the aft of the ship. Alarms blared and the shuttle began to lean to the left, decelerating at an astonishing pace.

"What the hell was that?" Sean yelled.

"They took out our left engine! Brace for impac-" Vass tried to yell out, but another shot collided with the ship. Everything went black.

* * *

><p>Sean groaned as his eyes painfully opened. His entire body throbbed and his face seemed to radiate the pain. He tilted his head downward to get a good look at his body, but it was pulled back up. "Wha…" Sean groaned, breathing heavily. As his eyesight returned he saw expanses of rock cliffs overlooking a wide unending ocean before him. In a way the planet was beautiful. The sloping red cliff, the open stretches, where he was seemed almost untouched by anyone, it seemed hard to believe that people once lived here. Instinctively, Sean lifted his leg to move. He quickly felt metal scraping against it and tried to put it back, but it was too late. The mess of wires that was holding his feet let go, causing Sean to collapse headfirst to the ground.<p>

Sean winced in pain as he pulled himself upright, his helmet and body covered in the red dust of Rannoch. He turned to make sense of what happened and stood in shock. Before him sat the twisted burning wreckage of the drop ship they had been on. The left side hull of the ship was torn open and all the windows smashed in. The fire seemed to have no problem, it engulfed the entire aft of the ship crackling and sizzling through what was left of the bulkhead.

His mind was shocked back into reality when he realized who was with him. "Tali!" he screamed as he jumped into the ship. "Tali! Where are you?" Sean began to rip the wreckage apart searching desperately for her. He ignored the flames as he desperately searched for Tali.

Cold sweat ran down his face as his brain went blank. An alarming emptiness began to fill him, as he could not locate her inside the ship. He paused and looked down. Had he really lost her? Taking another deep breath, Sean moved farther into the ship, the heat of the fire beginning to engulf his armor. He tried desperately to look for Tali past the inferno that encompassed the cargo bay. It was devoid of life. As the heat became almost unbearable, Sean slowly stepped out from the ship, all hope almost gone.

"Over here Sean." A weak voice said from outside.

"Tali!" Sean screamed as he ran over to a small glimmer of purple. He began to tear away the twisted bits of the hull and found her. Her form looked to be fine, no cuts or torn pieces of her suit, but large cracks stretched across her facemask. His entire body loosened at the sight of Tali. "Oh thank god." Sean whispered, scooping her up into his arms, "are you alright?" He asked.

"Dazed. But I'm fine, where's Vass and Shepard?" Tali asked, her senses returning.

Sean delicately set her down, "I'm going. I'm going to find them." Sean said before sprinting off into the wreckage.

"Shepard, Vass!" Sean yelled as he began to scan the radius of the crash.

"I'm over here, Sean." Shepard said pulling herself out of the wreckage. Her body didn't appear to be in as good of a condition as Tali's was, pads and chunks of her armor appeared to have been torn off by the crash and a few long cuts opened her suit to the air, but it didn't appear to slow her down. "Where's-"

Sean stammered, out of breath, "Tali's fine, I need to find V-" The sound of a weak gurgle cut Sean off. Sean ran forward to see Vass lying on the ground, half of his armor torn off, and visor shattered. Two large pieces of metal shrapnel embedded in his leg and chest made crawling impossible for Vass. "I got you." Sean said gingerly lifting Vass up. A sharp gasp of pain from Vass made Sean flinch, but he carried on.

Gently setting him down, Sean stepped back, taking in a staggered breath. Vass' body convulsed as he slowly started to slip away. Shepard and Tali surrounded him, trying to put off the inevitable.

"In the cockpit." He blubbered, blood running from his mouth.

"What?" Sean asked, bring his ear closer to Vass' mouth.

"It's in the cockpit." He half whispered, putting the rest of his energy into those words. Sean turned to see a bag that he had seen Vass throw into the drop ship lying, draped over what remained of the front windshield. Sean made his way over and retrieved the bag, raising it so Vass could see it. Vas then slowly leaned his head back, taking the beauty of his world in for the last time. With one last weak inhale a small smile formed on his face.

"He's gone." Shepard said, running her hand over Vass' face, closing his empty eyes.

Sean turned his head away and grimaced. This felt like the Suicide Mission all over again, but this time everything was happening too quickly. Everything was going south. They were marooned, wounded, and deep in enemy territory. Taking a steadying breath, Sean turned around trying hard to cover his demoralized demeanor.

"Find peace Vass'Droa vas Rannoch." Tali said slowly standing up.

"He came so far, and to die here…" Sean trailed off, his emotions inside of him jumbled.

"He knew what he was getting into. He died fighting for his home planet, I don't think he would have wanted it any other way." Shepard said standing up as well, "Lets go and finish this mission."

Sean sighed as he turned to follow Shepard. He scanned his armor and patted himself down, finding some the weapons he had clipped onto him for the mission, his sniper rifle and pistol remained in their holsters, but his Mattock was nowhere to be found. His armor looked like it had been through hell. The armor covering his right arm was split down the middle, flapping useless against his side, bits and pieces of his chest pads were torn, scratched, or ripped off. This wasn't the best way to start a mission, but there was no going back.

"Shepard to Normandy. Shepard to Normandy. Come in Normandy." Shepard wheezed into her headpiece. After a moment of silence, Shepard let her hand drop to her side. "I can't contact them. Our long range comms must have been damaged in the crash."

"And our short-way comms are working?" Sean asked. Shepard nodded in return. "Well how are we going to get off of this planet now?" Sean asked dropping to a sitting position on the ground.

"The mission comes first, then we worry about ourselves." Shepard said.

"Got it." Sean said, already demoralized. He shut his mouth and quietly looked over to Tali. He took her hand, and breathed in a ragged breath.

The group reconvened and took a moment to gather their bearings. After everyone had recovered, they turned their attention back to the mission at hand.

"The crash is sure to bring Geth attention." Tali said scanning the skies.

"Yes, but they will be occupied searching the crash site, giving us ample time to attack the cannons." Shepard responded.

"We'll need to act fast, or we won't have another shot." Sean chimed in.

"Then let's go." Shepard said followed by nods from the rest of the group.

* * *

><p>As they sprinted along the rocky hillsides of Rannoch, Sean couldn't help but notice the complete absence of geth. Where were they? If they had understood the map correctly, they should almost be at the cannons. Wouldn't the site be filled with geth? Wouldn't they be protecting it? Heck, they shot us down. That's where he would be if he were in their shoes, so to speak.<p>

"Anyone find the lack of geth disturbing?" Sean huffed.

"They aren't expecting us, so they wouldn't be on full alert." Tali said from behind Sean.

"Um… I don't know where you were, but we got shot down." Sean said as the group slowed, "That should be a sign to them to get ready and start preparing for an attack. I sure would."

"The geth aren't like us. They think logically, they don't have hunches. We were flying in on a small ship. They believe they just shot down a scout ship. They'll have no idea we're coming in to destroy their guns." Tali explained.

"We're here." Shepard said lowering to a crouch, "The cannons should be on the other side of this ridge. Let's get moving. We're losing the little time we have left."

"Shepard, How are we going to get off of here?" Sean asked, "We have no way of contacting the Fleet, or even the Normandy."

"I already have this planned out." Tali said, "The geth use boosters to send their signals around the planet quickly. If we were to hack into one of these and contact the Fleet, we could get a ride out of here."

"There's a comm. tower in this base?" Shepard asked.

"I'm hoping." Tali said, an expression of doubt filling his face, "I assume that this base is important. If so, one should be near by."

The group pulled themselves over the peak of the mountain and overlooked the base. The entire base hung over the edge of the cliff. Three cannons and a large antenna stood, reaching towards the sky. Geth troopers quietly patrolled the catwalks between the guns. None of them appeared to be ready for an attack. The extremely thick supports holding the platform up ruled out any chance of them being able to blow them and simply drop the cannons into the canyon. There were no buildings inside or around the base, the geth would be able to spot them coming from a good mile radius, so a silent attack seemed to be out of the question. It looked like they were going to have to fight their way in.

"The antenna there. That's what we were looking for." Tali pointed out. The group peaked out of their cover and caught a quick glimpse of it. "Fighters get down!" Tali yelled pulling Shepard and Sean down with her.

As Sean fell to the ground he peaked out of his hiding spot to see over two dozen geth fighters roar over their heads.

"I guess they got the memo." Sean said.

"The sky's crawling with them, there's no way we could safely evac." Tali said watching more and more fighters slow over the base.

"We'll get to that when we can. We need to move in now or we may not have another chance!" Shepard said vaulting over his cover.

Without thinking, Sean followed behind Shepard and leapt over the rock. To his surprise the opposite side of the cliff was steeper than he expected. Sean lost his footing as he began to slip downward and fell onto his back. He pulled himself into a controlled slide and aimed for the nearest catwalk. The geth had already noticed Shepard and were firing on the group as they slid down. Rolling onto the catwalk, Sean slipped into position behind Shepard, gun at the ready. Firing at the onslaught of geth troops, Sean pushed forward closer and closer to the guns. The fighters had noticed their attack and were turning to face the aggressors.

"Shepard." Sean said over their short-ranged comm system, "I see a panel that appears to control the guns. If given the chance, I can hack into it and get it to shoot upon the geth fighters."

"No. Tali's our tech specialist." Shepard yelled back, "Tali, we need you to get to that terminal!"

"Got it!" Tali yelled, "Give me some cover then!"

Sean peaked out from his cover and examined the path Tali would take to the panel. Two geth stood in his way to the panel, not to mention the two-dozen fighters anxious to tear her to pieces. If she got to the panel in time, she would be shielded from all fire from the air.

"Go!" Tali yelled as she stood up and sprinted forward.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Sean focused and raised his gun. The first geth on his path turned and tried to open fire, but found it difficult with two bullets through its head. It fell to the ground and slowly slipped off the catwalk. The fighters turned and warmed up their guns, training them on Tali. With a graceful dive, Tali slid behind a crate just as the fighters unleashed hell. All the shots ricochet off the crate and the catwalk, harmlessly. As the fighter's fire slowed to a stop Tali once again rose from cover and dashed forward, this time making it to the panel, and away from the fire. Her fingers flew across the keys as she began to type in code overriding and hacking her way through the firewalls and failsafes already in place. As Tali slid her finger across the 'execute' button, Sean heard the guns whirr to life. The guns rotated and began to warm their cannons. In repeated succession, the guns opened fire on the fighter fleet.

"That should keep them busy." Tali said over the comm.

"Nice job. We're headed over." Shepard replied as she and the other two rose from their cover.

"Alright we need to finish up the mission we were sent here to do." Shepard said as the group reconvened.

"I'll set up the charges." Sean volunteered.

"Alright, Tali and I will establish connection back with the Normandy." Shepard said.

Sean nodded and moved towards the gun, opening the pack containing the bundle of explosives. He was ready for this hell of a mission to be over

* * *

><p>"Normandy, come in Normandy." Shepard yelled.<p>

Crackling over the static, Joker's voice began to come through, "Commander, we're reading you. Where are you?"

"Our ship crashed. We need an evac ASAP!" Shepard said.

"Got it. Sending Cortez now."

"Sending the coordinates. And tell Cortez that's there is a fleet of fighters on us. We need him at his best."

"Rodger that. He just left. He'll be there in ten. He's sending his landing coordinates. It shouldn't be too far from your position."

"Alright pack up Sean. We're moving. Meet up at the panel." Shepard said over the comm.

"We're all set around here." Sean reported back in.

As the group reconvened at the panel Shepard couldn't help but notice the worried look on Sean's face.

"Sean, what's going on?" Shepard asked.

"I was just thinking, how do we know we're not just going to get shot down again? We need to have someone protecting the panel until we can get evaced." Sean said glancing around the base.

"We have it rigged to blow, if they were to turn it on us we could just detonate it." Tali said, worry entering her voice.

"Then what?" Sean asked, "If we're not already half gone we'll have the entire fighter fleet after us. We need to hold the cannons as long as possible."

"No Sean, you're not-" Tali began.

"Shepard. I'll watch these guns. You give me a call when the ship is a minute out and I'll book it to your position, that'll be our best chance."

"You'll need this then." Shepard said handing Sean an adrenaline shot, "Stay in contact the entire time." Shepard sprinted off towards the landing site, reluctantly followed by Tali.

"I will." Sean said, doubt beginning to enter his voice. As he saw the pair turn the corner, Sean began to move to a better place to hold out. He slid into a comfortable spot between a cluster of rocks and rested his sniper rifle in between them. He then removed the detonator, priming it and setting it beside him.

"Report in." Shepard said.

"The guns are still trying to take down the fleet. It's empty around here." Sean said. The last 'empty' echoed in his head as he began to hear clicks. He lowered his rifle onto his shoulder and looked down the scope. Three geth appeared on the catwalks and headed straight for the panel. Sean had no problem picking them off, but as soon as the last one dropped a squad of over twenty geth jumped into the open and opened fire onto Sean's position. "Just caught a few stragglers trying to make it to the panel." Sean lied.

"If there are any more you get out of there. Understood?" Shepard reported back.

"Got it." Sean said back. He could feel his heartbeat hammering in his ears. He knew his chances were slowly slimming. He shifted to a better spot and rose up to open fire. Sean felt heat pierce his abdomen as his finger began to squeeze the trigger. He screamed in agony as the pain began to fill the wound. He didn't stop. He couldn't stop. Tali needed him. Gritting his teeth, he reached to his side and pulled out one of his five vials of medigel. He injected it into his side and let out a groan of relief and pain as he began to feel the cool liquid make its way to the bullet hole. He needed to fight through it. He needed to get back to Tali. Sean moved up to run, but another bullet passing through his leg caused him to collapse to the ground. For the brief moment Sean lay on the ground he felt all hope slip away.

"Sean come in." Shepard voice crackled over the static, "Cortez is a minute out. Get over here!"

"I'm sorry Commander. I can't make it." Sean said through gritted teeth. The pain radiating from the bullet holes felt almost unbearable. Taking another shot of medigel, Sean shifted back into a leaning position and overlooked the battlefield. With one hand he drew the detonator. Letting out a slow breath he turned the switch, setting it to deadman's. He squeezed the detonator tightly with his right hand as he pressed down on the button with his thumb. The detonator beeped back at him, confirming that it had been activated. With his other hand, he mounted the rifle into his shoulder once again, slowly shooting back at the geth.

* * *

><p>Shepard breathed out a staggered sigh. She knew this would happen.<p>

"I have it set to deadman's. I'll hold out as long as I can Shepard. It's been an honor fighting alongside you." Sean hissed over the comm.

"No. It was a honor having you on the team." Shepard said, the inevitable drawing close.

"No Sean. You get over here right now!" Tali yelled back over the comm.

"I'm sorry Tali. There's no way. An entire geth squad ambushed me. I'll hold out as long as I can. Just get off of here safely." Sean's voice crackled back.

"No. You are not doing this. We'll come back and get you out of there." Tali said, her voice cracking.

"No. I need you to leave. I need you to get out of here." Sean said, his voice filled with pain. His staggered breathing began to fill the comm channel.

"Sean…" Tali tried to speak, tears running down her face.

"Your evac is here." Cortez said, swooping in the drop ship next to Shepard. The doors opened and Shepard jumped on. "Where's Sean? He came with you guys didn't he?"

Shepard lowered her eyes and didn't say a thing. Cortez turned and saw Tali waiting outside, staring at the three cannons in the distance. He took a breath in as the situation dawned on him.

"Listen. I found a great spot for your house. It has a beautiful view. Beachfront, just what you wanted." Sean wheezed over the comm.

"Our house Sean. You're going to be there to help me build it remember?" Tali sobbed. Shepard stepped out of the ship and began to help a resistant Tali onto the shuttle.

"Get a window overlooking this place Tali, for me. I want your kids to see this beautiful sight." Sean said, tears beginning to make their way down his face.

Tali didn't respond. She didn't know what to say. Sean was going to leave her forever. Nothing could help fix the vast unfathomable vacuum of emptiness growing inside of her.

"Tali, Thank you. Thank you for giving me everything." Sean said, his voice wavering, "I love-" Static filled the comm., seconds later the blast echoed, the shockwave passed through her. The cannons began to topple over, still firing at the fleet, which had now been weaned down to a few stray fighters.

"No! Sean! Talk to me!" She screamed, trying to run forward, but Shepard grabbed her.

"Tali we need to go!" Shepard said, trying to pull Tali into the ship.

"No! He's still out there!" Tali yelled, fighting her way forward, "He needs us!"

"Tali. Sean's gone. He did this so we could safely get out of here. Don't make it in vain." Shepard said, lowering her voice.

Tali didn't respond. She just stopped fighting Shepard and allowed herself to be carried back onto the ship.

"Go now!" Shepard yelled as she pulled Tali onto the ship. The engines roared as the ship took off.

Before the door shut, Tali got one final look at the area. What was left of the base was slowly sinking into the valley below. The part that was connected to the land seemed to have been blown apart. Only a few pieces of the base were left behind, all dented or seared by the blast. She turned her head. She couldn't bear to look at it. Shepard looked over the edge, hoping to see some movement down there. Nothing.

"He…" Tali tried to say, but she couldn't continue. The grief had taken her. She was too weak to move to a seat, so she sat there, her head buried into her hands, body shaking as she silently sobbed. Shepard moved behind her and laid a weak hand on her shoulder. Shepard didn't say a word. She knew she couldn't. She just needed to show Tali that she was here for her

The rest of the flight back was in complete silence. Cortez and Shepard occasionally glanced back and forth, but not a single word was spoken. Shepard knew she couldn't do anything about it. Sean was gone. He gave his life so that they could continue theirs and finish this God damned war.


	16. Chapter 15

**AN: I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter. It's been rather busy for me in the past few weeks, not to mention an overwhelming amount of writer's block. But when I got back into this story I decided to change up my writing style.**

**I do plan of finishing this story and hope I can get the remaining chapters out within a reasonable amount of time.**

**Until then I thank you for sticking with my story.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 15<p>

Garrus leaned over the bar, quietly stirring his drink. The precipitation that clung to the glass was cold to the touch but he didn't seem to notice it, his mind was elsewhere. Sean was dead. He knew it was true, but he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it quite yet. He knew Sean was a little crazy in his own way, and would do anything to assure Tali's safety, but kill himself? The ship felt empty now with him gone. Sean was one of the few members of the crew he seemed to connect with. It was Sean and Shepard that Garrus felt comfortable showing his true self to. Sean always seemed to understand and Shepard always simplified the problems down to something more manageable for him. Now everything had seemed to crumble. Now he only had Shepard. He didn't know quite what to do yet. He'd probably do the same thing he always did when things became too complicated, return to something he understood, alone.

"He was a good kid Garrus." James said trying to feel what Garus was going through. He put a hand on his shoulder and slid into a seat next to him.

"I know, I know. He was a crazy one, but he was a good soldier. It'll definitely be different not having him onboard anymore." Garrus reminisced, trying to pull his mind away from his own problems.

"We know Garrus, and we knew that you were very close to him." Liara said, throwing in her own thoughts and feelings, taking a seat on the other side of Garrus, "But let's not forget what he died for."

"He may have fought in this war, but he died for Tali." Garrus said.

"He sacrificed his life so that Tali could get hers back." Liara reminded. There went Liara again, trying to make logical sense of everything. Garrus didn't buy it. Sean was impulsive, very few of his actions were logical, but maybe in his final hours, maybe, he found reason in his actions.

"To Sean." James said raising his glass, "Wherever he is, I hope he's happy."

"To Sean." Garrus agreed, raising his glass as well. He took a quick gulp and set the empty glass back down. "Save me a seat." He whispered to himself.

* * *

><p>"Any luck?" Shepard asked looking down at the scans. The radar moved slowly around the map scanning diligently for anything that could give Shepard some closure.<p>

"We've found no signs of life within a kilometer radius of the blast zone." Traynor said.

"Have you tried-" Shepard began.

"I'm sorry, Commander, but we've tried everything. We searched for any frequency he could have sent out, searched for the effects of a barrier or a shield, and scanned for any sign of heat. If he was there or alive we would have found him." Traynor added.

"I understand." Shepard said turning to leave. Shepard needed this, she needed to find something that explained the rapid end of Sean. She didn't need to find his body, she needed to find a reason, and now she knew she couldn't find it in front of the computer screen. "I appreciate the effort you have put into this." She then entered the elevator and keyed it for her room. The doors opened to her room and she sighed. Slowly waking forward she reached down and picked up the freshly made nameplate. She didn't bother reading it. She had been through this too many times. As much as she had appreciated what Sean had done, she just wished it could be over; for all this killing to end. She returned to the elevator and waited for a moment before hitting the button for the third floor.

Shepard paused as the empty air of the Normandy filled her lungs. She hated this. It hurt every time she had to visit this wall. She took another long breath as she ran her hands across the metallic nameplate with the name Sean Mason etched into it. The metal felt empty, and not worthy of Sean's memory. Like Mordin, Shepard hoped Sean's true likeness could be honored through the memories of all the crew. She slid it into one of the few remaining spots on the wall. Slowly she stepped back and stared at the wall for quite some time. She read through the names up on the wall once again. So many memories radiated from the names on this wall. Some good, some sad, but most made Shepard feel worse knowing that they would never see the end of this war that they fought so hard for. Behind her she heard staggered breathing. Turning, Shepard laid her eyes on Tali trying hard to keep her emotions under control.

"I'm so sorry, Tali." Shepard said. She wanted to say more, but she knew that it wouldn't matter.

Tali didn't respond, she just walked to Shepard's side, her eyes locked to Sean's name on the wall.

"He just wanted more time." Tali said, guilt seeping into her voice, "and I couldn't even give him that."

"No one knew this was coming, Tali." Shepard said trying to console her.

"All I can think of is what I didn't do." Tali said, trying very hard to control her overwhelming emotions.

"Tali. Sean died happy, and he died for you to be happy, for you to get the life you always wanted."

"I just can't. This isn't the life I wanted. I wanted to be with Sean. I didn't care where." Tali said, giving in and covering her face with her hands. Shepard didn't respond. There was nothing more she could say. "I thought that after we retook Rannoch I could finally spend my time with him. But now I can't even do that." Tali stammered through her sobs.

"Tali…" Shepard began, but stopped as she saw Tali produce a wrapped object from behind her.

"I was going to give him this as a present." Tali said revealing a fresh robotic arm, built with three fingers like the first one, this one was more refined. Shepard winced. She could feel the guilt climbing higher inside of Tali. "I wanted to show him that I never stopped caring."

"Come on." Shepard said navigating Tali to Sean's room.

"I… I don't think I can go in there." Tali stammered.

"It's alright." Shepard lightly coaxed. Slowly the pair entered the room, and paused at the emptiness. Slowly Tali reached out her trembling arms and carefully rested the arm on the neatly made bed. She murmured something then turned to the nightstand. Her eyes fell upon the picture frame. Quivering, she picked it up.

"I can't believe I didn't notice this." Tali half whispered.

"EDI gave him a few pictures to chose from, I guess this one was his favorite." Shepard said lightly smiling at the picture.

Tali let out a painful laugh as more memories began to fill her mind, "He seemed so miserable that day, but when he saw the arm I built… he was so happy."

"I don't think it was the arm that made him happy." Shepard said resting a compassionate hand on her shoulder.

A quivering smile formed on Tali's face. "I miss him so much." She finally said giving into her emotions. Shepard embraced Tali tightly. Tali needed this.


	17. Chapter 16

**AN: Thank you for sticking to my story. I feel like I've gotten my writing spirit back and am planning out chapters like crazy. **

**Also your comments/follows/favorites help keep me focused on my writing, so keep sending them.**

**Until next chapter...**

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><p>Chapter 16<p>

The Illusive Man sat quietly on his metal chair overlooking the empty space that lingered before him. Multiple holographic screens flashed in front of him. Each spilling out information on the war before his eyes, but he didn't care at the moment. His eyes looked through the clutter of light and into the space beyond, his mind deep into his next move against the Reapers.

"Sir." One of his doctors said rushing in, a bright red light was flashing on the omni-pad clutched in his shaking hands, "One of our agents went dark."

The Illusive Man's mind halted at the last word. He shifted in his chair to try and camouflage any emotion that possibly arose. His mind quickly darted to the situation at hand. "See to it that he survives. We need him more than you know." He responded in a gravely voice that was completely devoid of emotion.

"Sir he's too far behind enemy lines. There's no way we can enter without raising suspicion or the agent's cover being blown." the doctor began to protest, but his complaint was cut short by the Illusive Man raising his hand.

"See to it that he survives." The Illusive Man repeated, a hint of annoyance in his voice, "and get Kai back to me." he added.

"Yes sir right away." The doctor sighed, slowly leaving the room. As the doors whisked shut, the Illusive man returned to one of the holographic screens, pulling up the most recent information. "Now Shepard, what have you been up to?" he asked.

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><p>Tali's feet quietly crunched against the red gravel of Rannoch. She turned and quietly admired the scenery. There she stood on top of a large cliff that overlooked the pure beauty that was Rannoch. Drinking in the picturesque sun set, Tali held her hands out in front of her as if she were taking a mental picture. Yes, here would be the spot she would build her house. She imagined laying down the foundations and slowly building it up from the ground. She visioned children running around the outside playing and laughing, completely innocent. She pictured herself sitting on the porch next to Sean- She paused not wanting to finish the thought. Once again guilt creeped up in the back of her mind. She looked away from the scenery and back to Shepard, trying to prevent the lump in her throat from becoming her tears. She turned and feel in stride with Shepard, taking one last look back on the spot where her future house would stand and feeling a small tear run down her face.<p>

As the path they were following funneled into what looked like a collapsed canyon, one of her hands helped her over the rugged terrain, and the other dragged the shotgun behind her. She needed to be here she told herself, but her heart just wasn't in it. She took a deep breath to try and hid her emotions. She needed to be strong; she needed to be like Shepard, but most of all she needed to show her people that they had a chance to return to the planet that they dreamed of. Taking a few more breaths to steady herself, Tali carefully bottled her emotions inside of her. She looked up into the clear skies of Rannoch and paused for a moment, letting more of its beauty sink in. She began to feel her eyes slowly go out of focus, no doubt an effect from the lack of sleep the past two days. Turning, her eyes fixed upon Shepard who was slowly approaching her. She could see a concerned look on Shepard's face, bringing forth some worry inside of Tali.

"Something wrong Shepard?" Tali asked. She knew what the answer would be, but she didn't feel comfortable saying it out loud, not just yet.

"Do you really feel ready for this?" Shepard asked in a comforting tone. Shepard put extra care into what she was saying. She knew what emotions Tali was going through and preferred not to get the brunt of them.

"I need to be out here, Shepard. I need to remember what I'm fighting for." Tali said in a painful monotone, almost as if she were reading it off a paper.

"No you don't. We all know what you're going through. There's nothing wrong with taking time to recover." Shepard said, looking over to Tali, who was lightly shaking. No doubt Shepard's words had brought forth a few emotions that Tali was trying to hold back. "I- We need you at your best."

Tali paused trying to collect herself and show her quivering body. "I know Shepard, I'll be alright." Tali said looking back at Shepard. She smiled lightly from behind her mask hoping to convince Shepard, and perhaps herself, that she was ready.

Shepard sighed. She knew how important Rannoch was to Tali and she didn't want to prevent Tali from being a part of its liberation. Decisions bounced around in her mind of whether to bring Tali along and possibly endanger her or remove her from one of the most important missions to take back Rannoch. Shepard closed her eyes and said, "Alright Tali, let's go." Shepard turned and left the landing zone, slowly walking into a tight path between two solid-rock walls. It looked like their path would be a bit more restricted than planned for their approach. Regardless, Shepard put the minor hiccup behind her and advanced.

Tali nodded in thanks and followed Shepard forward and towards the final Geth instillation. This mission was the final piece for the Quarians to take Rannoch back, all they had to do was a simple task: take down a Reaper base; and for her next trick she would teach a geth to love. Ha. She saw Shepard slide silently into cover and she quickly followed, withdrawing her shotgun. As Tali's back pressed up against the rock Shepard used as cover, she breathed out a shaky breath. Her finger tightened around its trigger as Shepard peaked over the cover.

Ducking back into cover, Shepard whispered over the comm., "There's five geth standing in the open. We're wedged in here pretty tight so stealth isn't going to be an option. The moment we open fire we need to double-time it to the base. The faster we take down this threat the sooner we can stop the geth."

Garrus reached over and placed a hand on Tali's shoulder, his other hand carefully balancing his sniper rifle so none of it showed from behind their cover. "You ready for this?" He asked calmly. Tali didn't respond, but she turned her head towards the edge of their cover. Assuming that as a yes, Garrus turned to Shepard waiting for her go.

"EDI you still with Legion?" Shepard asked, checking over everything while they had the chance.

"Yes, Commander, We are approaching the facility from the south. In a manner of fifteen minutes we should have procured an vehicle that we can escape the facility with." EDI responded.

"Understood. We're beginning the assault." Shepard said, nodding in Garrus and Tali's direction. Quickly Shepard rose from cover and fired a burst into the geth that stood before her. Garrus and Tali added the mixture of shotgun and sniper fire into the mix and within a span of three seconds all five geth lay on the ground, sending their warnings to the other units. She felt her heart beat instantly jump into action as they sprinted forward.

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><p>Tali's mind went blank as she sprinted forward. Tunnel vision began to restrict her field of view as she struggled to keep up with Shepard's unimaginably long sprint. She felt her feet contacting with the ground rhythmically, her heart beat pounding him her head, and the cold metal of her trusty shotgun. She noticed her gaze began to tilt downward as exhaustion began to grip at her muscles. <em>No, <em>she thought as she tried to fight off the inevitable, _I need to do this. We need it. I need it. _She lifted her head up and saw Shepard skid to a halt at the edge of the platform. They had reached it, the end to all this. She could feel her body shudder as the excitement rose inside of her.

Shepard pulled the designator off of her back and aimed it at the center of the Reaper instillation. The small laser pointer beeped as the position locked on. Time for all this to come to a close. She looked up in time to see the Normandy gracefully swoop in and deliver its payload.

The unexpectedly powerful shockwave from the blast knocked Shepard off of her feet and sent her careening onto the platform below. As her head collided with the ground, she fought to keep herself from blacking out. She felt blood begin to trickle its way down the side of her head and into her hair. _Not now. Not now. _she repeated as she forced herself up, _You can sleep when you are dead. _As she righted herself, Shepard turned to see a geth cruiser rapidly approaching. Raising her rifle she readied a concussive shot in hopes that it would knock the vehicle off of its path.

Legion's voice penetrated through her comm., "Shepard, Commander. We have obtained a vehicle for evacuation of this facility."

"Good job Legion." Shepard smiled as she lowered her rifle. She turned and saw Garrus and Tali jump down to her level. Giving a quick wave, Shepard ushered them inside the cruiser.

"Did we finish it off?" Joker asked as he forced the Normandy back into space.

"It looks like it." Shepard began as she looked over the vast chasm where the base used to be. A small red light flickered from what seemed like miles below. Shepard's eyes grew wide in terror as the red light exploded forward. The monster threw itself out of the hole and began to right itself with a deafening roar. It wasn't a base, it was a Reaper.

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><p><strong>AN: Ohmygodwhatanamazingcliffhan ger! Itotallydontknowwhatwillhapp ennext! :)<strong>


	18. Chapter 17

**AN: So I wasn't quite sure if I should have included this chapter in the last, but for the sake of dramatic tension I opted to hold out. Anyway, here is the next installment. **

**I'll be happy to answer any questions or respond to criticism as you see fit. Looking forward to your reviews!**

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><p>Chapter 17<p>

Tali watched in shock as she saw Legion collapse to the ground, all artificial life leaving it forever. She couldn't last much longer. She could feel her stomach twist and knot as emotions inside of her battled their way to the top. She gave in and let her emotions out. She couldn't help it. Even though Legion was an AI, she still felt like she had just lost a friend. It went out fighting for its people, to give them a second chance. Tali squeezed her eyes shut trying in vain to stop the tears from forming in her eyes. It all felt like too much for her. She had just lost someone else in this battle. First her only love, and now her friend. She brought her hands up to her face and sobbed quietly. She felt so alone. Shepard's arm reached around Tali's shoulder and pulled her closer as if she was reminding Tali of all the people that cared about her. Shepard brought Tali closer to her, letting Tali have someone to cry on during this final hour.

"I'm sorry Tali." was all Shepard could say. Shepard paused and turned to seen Admrial Raan approach their position. "Admiral Raan, I heard your ship made a crash landing. I'm glad you made it out in one piece."

"I heard what you did. If Gerrel hadn't stopped-"

"But he did." Shepard cut Raan off.

"What's going to happen? Where are we going to go?" Raan began, nervously wringing her fingers together.

Tali looked up to see a geth prime approaching them. She tried to leap into action, but none of her was behind the thought. All her body allowed her to do was turn.

"You are welcome to return to Rannoch with us, Admiral Raan." The prime spoke, its figure calm.

"Legion?" Shepard asked, hoping that Legion somehow still existed inside the geth consciousness.

"No. I'm sorry Commander, Legion sacrificed itself to give us all intelligence. It will be honored." the prime responded.

"Good"

"and we will honor Legion's promise." The geth then turned to Raan, "Admiral have you considered possible settlement sites?"

Shepard turned to see another geth approach her. It seemed like so much was happening in too short of a time. Just minutes ago Shepard would have blasted these units away, but now she was cooperating and conversing with them. Pausing in shock, she didn't respond.

"Commander, we have found one of your squad mates." the geth said. Oddly enough the geth had a mournful tone, more that Shepard could begin to comprehend from an AI.

"Yes." Shepard said letting out a sigh, "Sean."

"A unit has arrived with him." the geth said turning and pointing to a prime carrying Sean's limp body. Shepard's eyes snapped to Sean's body draped over the arms of a geth. Sean's form had seen all hell. From the crash bits and pieces of the armor was torn off already, but to see it after the blast, Shepard was at a loss of words. The skin that was exposed was charred beyond belief and what was left of the armor seemed to either be fused together or completely melted off. His robotic arm was a mess with wires everywhere and chunks missing from it, it was a wonder how it managed to stay together. Only his helmet remained intact from the blast, but still had seen better days. The helmet was chipped in multiple places and the back had a large dent in it, most likely from a collision between it and some debris. Blood and dirt stains ran down every corner and crevice of the suit. His body that once used to hold so much life dangled limply from the arms of the geth. It was hard to see something that Sean had fought so hard against giving him, for the lack of a better word, humanity.

Shepard felt her insides knot as the sight of Sean brought back memories of the mission gone horribly wrong, "Thank you. I'm glad we can have closure." Shepard said trying to hide her emotions. She watched as the prime past her and walked straight to Tali. Tali turned from her conversation with Raan and looked upon the body. Gently, the geth set Sean's body down on the ground at Tali's feet. Tali stood motionless for a minute, as millions of bottled emotions broke free and fought their way forward. Her knees trembled as she looked down upon her lover. She fell to her knees as her body began to tremble. She gingerly removed his helmet so that she could look upon his face once more, then a wail escaped from Tali as she cradled Sean's broken body him her hands. Tears streamed down Tali's face as she couldn't help but sob loudly over Sean. So much that used to be, taken way from her, forever.

Raan approached Shepard, "That is." she began to ask.

"Sean. Sean Mason." Shepard said wincing at the thought of the pain Tali was beginning to feel. She knew Quarians usually bonded for life, but she couldn't prepare herself for such an amount of raw emotion, "He loved Tali, and she loved him back."

"Back on the fleet Tali kept talking about him. I told her that I wanted to meet him. She could only smile. I awaited that day to see Tali as happy as she was then, but… I'm sorry." Raan said quietly.

"He was a good kid. He died during our mission to take down the orbital guns. Sean died so that Tali could see Rannoch again. It's horrible that it ended up like this. Tali shouldn't have had to go through all this again."

" I understand. It's never easy to lose a loved one." Raan said, she tried to begin another apology but stopped as she saw the The geth that had brought Sean's body approached Shepard,

"Commander, we found Mason's body over a kilometer away from the blast site. the area where we found his body was surrounded by seven medigel capsules. Each appeared to have been taken in succession." the geth continued. Over a kilometer? Shepard's mind began to question the statement of the geth. How? The blast wasn't nearly as powerful to fling his body that far away. Her thoughts stopped and locked onto a possible cause, medigel. Shepard's mind synapsed

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><p>Garrus had now exited the vehicle and knelt beside Tali. Without actually saying it, Tali greatly appreciated it. She needed friends at a time like this, and she was glad Garrus was by her side. Tali looked town onto Sean's face once more. Her tears had slowed, but her body still trembled. She brought her hand up to his face, hoping that for some random miracle Sean would come back to her. Breathing out a staggered sigh, Tali loosed her grip and lowered Sean's head into her lap. Tali turned to see Shepard running toward her. She paused, frightened and unable to react to this bizarre turn of events.<p>

Shepard skidded to a halt in front of Sean's body and felt his belt for the adrenaline she had given him when he opted to detonate the bomb. She closed her eyes and prayed that this theory of hers was right, and not just a speck of hope on a lost mission.

"Shepard what are you-" Tali began.

Shepard brought down the shot fast and hard above Sean's heart. The needle pierced and injected the adrenaline solution directly into Sean's system. She tossed the needle aside and waited for the adrenaline to kick in. Sean didn't respond, his body lay as limp as it was before. Discouraged, Shepard took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her hair. It was worth a shot right? Right? Standing up, she began to slowly walk away from a mess she had created.

"Shepard?" Tali tried to ask. Her and mind body still a mess over Sean. Shepard turned to look back. Shepard sighed. She didn't want to explain what had been going through her mind at that time, it was just a fool's hope. Her head slowly lowered. As her eyes drifted downward she caught a slight movement. Her head perked up as she saw Sean's finger on his right, robotic, arm twitch. Her heart began to pound as his fist began to clench. Sean's green eyes snapped open and his body flung forward as he inhaled deeply, returning from the dead once more.


	19. Chapter 18

**AN: A lot of effort went into bringing Sean back. Mostly I had to find a way for it to not be too hokey or yet not too implausible. I think the way I came up with is a good middle ground. **

**If you still have more questions feel free to ask me or patiently wait. I do intend to explain everything that is going on.**

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><p>Chapter 18<p>

6 hours after the attack on the orbital cannons

A weak breath escaped Sean's lips as his senses took their time to return to him. Everything inside of him hurt. He couldn't feel his limbs over the screams of pain his muscles were sending to his brain. He tried to wiggle his feet, but they replied with more unbearable pain. Taking a moment to collect himself, he deduced that he had multiple broken or fractured ribs, one of his legs was dislocated, and the other was shattered beyond belief. He slowly lifted his head to find his bearings once more. After wincing in pain multiple times, he finally raised his head far enough to see his surroundings. He was still at the instillation. He could see the destruction he had caused. The guns were nowhere to be found and the catwalk was almost completely gone, only some warped and melted rails stood to tell the tale of what used to stand here. The rest of the base seemed rather intact. The walls were scorched and all the glass shattered, but somehow it managed to stay put. A groan of pain escaped his lips as he allowed his heavy head to flop to the ground. He needed to move. He needed to fight. He needed to live.

He breathed a long sigh of relief when his arms responded to his prompts and lifted them before his eyes. The skin, that was previously exposed, on his left arm was blackened and burnt and he could hear his skin crackle and tear into smaller chunks as he tried to bend his fingers. No sensation went through his fingertips as he dropped his spent left arm to his side. His right arm was a different story. Multiple wires stuck from it and sparked every time he rotated his wrist, but somehow it still seemed to work.

After his self check-up Sean felt like his only chance for survival would be to move far away from this place, but he couldn't do in his condition now. Reaching down, he produced one of the medigel capsules he was equipped with. Flicking off the safety tip, Sean drove the syringe into his arm. The pain his body was going through was numbed, just barely enough for him to think properly.

Taking his time, he rolled over onto his stomach. As his body twisted he could feel blood and possibly other fluids slosh around in his leggings and pants. Ignoring the awkward sensations his body was going through, he tried to move. With slow movements, Sean began to pull himself up and away from the crater. Every muscle that was used in each his pulls ached and screamed at him to stop, but he refused. He needed to live, he needed to see Tali just one more time to die a happy man.

As he pulled himself over the edge of the embankment he rewarded himself with a quick break. The medigel that he had injected less than five minutes ago seemed to be wearing off, or the pain had become worse, regardless, Sean prepped another syringe. The second injection was stronger than before and he could feel his limbs beginning to go numb. His eyelids began to droop as the sedatives began to kick in. No! This can't happen! I can do this! Come on Sean, get off your lazy ass and get moving!

As his own mind barked orders at him, Sean forced his arms to continue to pull him forward. _You're not dead yet! Move!_ His mind screamed at him trying to get him to focus on the mission and not the pain, but it was unbearable. _One more_, he thought looking at the medigel still strapped to his waist. _No_, the educated side of his mind said, _if you take more you could overdose! Taking three full shots of medigel in a short period of time could cause you to black out. You need to stay awake as long as you can to increase your chance of survival. _Sean groaned, it was right. He couldn't risk it. Mustering all the strength left in him, he slapped his hand back in front of him and gripped the gravel once more.

Sean's face settled on the dusty ground. He couldn't take much more. His entire body shivered as what blood was left in him failed to keep him warm. With a dull ache of pain, Sean flipped himself over onto his back. Was this it? His breathing was labored and he couldn't think straight any more. The pain had returned to him in full force once more and he realized his end had come. With a weak groan, Sean lifted his back far enough for him to grab the last four syringes of medigel that were on his belt. He put two in each hand and removed the safety. He was going to go, but he didn't want to feel it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. As a tear trickled down his cheek as he tried not to focus on his looming end. He focused on Tali and the memories he had with her, the times they spent together. He let out a shaky breath and drove all four needles into his legs simultaneously. The soothing sensation of the medigel swept through him like a cool winter breeze. Sean tried to lift his left arm to to his chest in hopes of warming himself up, but gave up as the numbing agent from the medigel had already taken over his muscles. Taking another breath to calm his nerves, Sean looked up into the cloudless night sky. He smiled as he imagined the Normandy landing here one day and escorting Tali and the rest of the quarians to their new home planet. He imagined Tali leaving her house, no mask obscuring her beautiful face any more, smiling once more.

The sedatives slowly inched their way through Sean's system and he felt his eyelids begin to feel weighted. There was no sense fighting it anymore, Sean let go and closed his eyes.

It felt like his life was flashing before his eyes, but not quite. It was more like chunks of memories laid out like an art gallery and at the end, an unending corridor of light. The walls of the gallery were painted in a faded grey and his memories were projected onto sections of the walls, a final exhibition of the late Sean. Sean couldn't help but tear up as he looked back on his memories.

After only looking at a few of the memories playing before him, he couldn't take more of it. It pained him so much seeing the people who had such a great impact on him so close to him, but in reality so far away. He was leaving this all behind. His bottom lip quivered as he turned to the light, the exit, the end of him. He straightened his posture and took a slow breath in, then took a wary step forward. As he approached the hallway he could begin to feel warmth for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Just as he took another step forward, a shadowy figure stepped in front of his path. Sean jumped lightly, he wasn't prepared for this turn of events. The figure had no discernible form, and the light that reflected around it blinded Sean. Sean squinted and put a hand up to shield the light from his eyes, but it didn't help.

"What?" Was all Sean could muster.

"You're important Sean. We need you. Your friends need you. The galaxy needs you." the figure said. Its voice seemed like a compilation of every voice he had ever heard.

Unable to move, Sean whispered "How do you know?"

"We have so much more planned for you. You can't leave now. We need you." the shadow responded.

"I can't go back. You saw what happened to me! I was blown up."

"Not entirely. You made it so far. You fought through pain that others would have let overtake them. You are clearly not ready to end all of that now. You need to go back."

"But how?"

"I'll lead the way." the shadow said turning sharply. It seemed to glide over the floor as it approached a bench that Sean had overlooked before. It took a seat and Sean followed in stride. Sean glanced over at the figure, who appeared to be staring at a blank wall. Confused, Sean looked back and forth between the wall and the shadow.

"What now?" Sean asked, seeing no path to follow.

"Now," The shadow began, "you return."

Sean gave the figure a weird look. Suddenly he felt an invisible force hit his chest. He almost fell off the bench, completely surprised and taken off guard. Next he felt a pinch in the center of his chest, quickly followed by a burning sensation. His breaths became rapid, and he felt motion in his chest, like a rabbit trying to break free of a net. He fought the sensation. The shadow turned and placed its hand on Sean's shoulder. It didn't say anything, it just nodded. Sean paused, it felt like the fear he was experiencing was being absorbed by the touch of the shadow. He straightened in his seat and closed his eyes, now welcoming the sensation and allowing it to take control of his body. He slowly breathed out.

Sean's eyes snapped open as light and color began to enter through his pupils once again. He took a sharp breath as his body was involuntarily thrown forward.

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><p>At first Sean's vision was blurry and blinding, but as his eyes slowly adjusted. The first thing his eyes locked onto were Tali's. Even though they were partially obscured by her visor, he could tell too much pain was in them. Her normally beautifully silver eyes had small hints of red in them. Upon closer inspection, Sean could see the reflections from the tears that had fallen from Tali's eyes. But none of that bothered him. He was in Tali's arms once more. Was he really awake or was this another event his brain was putting him through to calm his worried mind? He looked around to see he was surrounded by familiar faces. Shepard and Garrus both stared at him their faces trying to find a way to represent the complete surprise that went through their minds. The sudden kick of adrenaline began to fade away as complete exhaustion from his body began to rise. His body began to relax and he slowly laid back into Tali's arms.<p>

"Have you built that house yet?" He asked weakly, trying his best to smile.

Tali paused, her mind couldn't process what it had just seen. Only moments before she was holding Sean's lifeless corpse, and now he had returned from the dead. She reacted the only way she could, she squeezed him tighten than ever against her chest. She didn't want to let go, never would she let herself or Sean go through something like that again.

Sean felt the wind knocked out of his lungs from the power of Tali's embrace. He couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't a dream. He wrapped his raw arms around Tali's neck and hugged her as tightly as he could. This, was a perfect moment. He never wanted it to end. As Tali's hug relaxed, Sean only stared up into her eyes as his head slowly was lowered into Tali's lap. Sean reached up his hand and placed it on the bottom of Tali's helmet. He couldn't see it, but Sean knew Tali was smiling once more and he couldn't help but smile back.

Tali lifted her hand to meet Sean's hand under her mask, and gingerly she removed her face mask. Setting it lightly on the ground, Tali looked deeply into Sean's eyes, with nothing obstructing her anymore. Sean smiled back at her as she tried to wipe her tears away. He tried to say something but all she heard was a staggered, happy sigh. She couldn't hold herself back any longer, she leaned in and kissed Sean more passionately than ever before.

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><p>Shepard put a hand up to her earpiece, "Joker, send down a medical dropship, we need an evac stat." She looked back at Sean and Tali still in a passionate embrace. Shepard just couldn't get her mind around all the events that had taken place today. A day that will never be forgotten.<p>

"What happened?" Joker responded, worry filling his voice, "Oh God, was Tali hit?"

"We have Sean back." Shepard said, still not believing her own words.

"How-" Joker stopped himself. Now was not the time to ask questions like that. "The drop ship is en-route. He'll be there in three."

"Tell Cortez to double-time it, Sean has waited long enough."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Also I ask for your forgiveness, my normal typing program has recently been acting up and I switched to the computer's lame default text program. I did my best to fix all the spelling errors and grammatical problems I could catch, but some will still probably get through. I should have a new version of my old typing program sometime soon.<strong>


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Wow" Garrus said looking into the medical bay from the galley. He saw Sean laying down on one of the medical tables in a sedated sleep, and Tali sat beside him resting her head on his shoulder. "I still can't believe Sean made it out of there alive. Spirits, that kid must be the luckiest person alive!"

"Sean sure does flirt with death a bit too much." Shepard said standing alongside Garrus, her hands clasped behind her back, "Perhaps I should keep him away from the frontlines for a while."

Garrus let out a loud laugh, "Keep Sean away? Ha! It's like, oh how do you humans say? 'Telling a dog to stay away from its bone.' Right?"

"More or less." Shepard said, trying to keep a straight face. This was something she always looked forward to. She enjoyed listening to the ramblings and the conversations with the crewmembers after every mission. It reminded her of a simpler time where people were not overwhelmed with the horrors of the war.

"I'd use one of the turian sayings, but unfortunately that'll go far over your head. Though human sayings are very simplistic… easy to grasp." Garrus said, his mandibles twitching as he rambled.

Shepard couldn't help but smile at Garrus' attempts to relate to her culture. "Go ahead and get some rest Garrus. You deserve a bit of time off after what happened today." She said patting him lightly on the back.

"I'm just warming up. I usually liberate three to four planets a day." Garrus joked. He turned to his room at the forward batteries and gave a quick wave, "See you around Commander, and it's good to have Sean back."

Shepard smiled and nodded politely before approaching the window of the medbay and looked in. She had seen Sean on that bed too much. She hoped that this would be the last, but knew it could never be. As long as Tali and Sean were together, no mission would be too dangerous for him. Sean would do anything to keep her safe and that worried Shepard. He never knew when he should stop, and when was too far, but still it was good to have him back in one piece. Shepard's eyes glanced over Sean's sleeping form and saw that his body seemed to be making a relatively fast recovery. The seared skin on his left arm was quickly being treated by the skin grafts. His outsides were making a quick recovery, but how were his insides, or even his mental state?

As if sensing her call, Dr. Chakwas exited the medbay and headed in the Commander's direction. She stopped by Shepard's side and turned to face the direction Shepard was already facing. "Evening Doctor." Shepard said calmly.

"Here to see how Sean's doing, or perhaps Tali?" Chakwas asked, a hint of a smile appearing on her face.

"How's he doing?" Shepard asked, choosing to ignore the comment.

"Well, it's next to a miracle that he survived." Chakwas began readying her omnipad. Lists and medical jargon began to flood the screen and Chakwas continued, "The medigel that he had injected himself momentarily slowed his loss of blood, but what baffles me is that medigel doesn't last three days. It should have worn off within a few hours and he should have bled out. Yet somehow his heart slowed down enough to keep him alive, just barely. But this just begins to scrape the surface of what happened."

"What do you mean?" Shepard asked, intrigued.

"Well when I first got Sean on the operating table his skin showed a lot of pressure from all his internal bleeding, but when I relieved the pressure I couldn't find the source of the injury."

"Could that have been brought on by the medigel?"

"No. Medgel temporarily relieves pain and clots the wounded areas. When it wears off the person who took the medigel returns to their previous state. Sean's body seemed to heal itself at a super accelerated rate that I have never seen in anyone, except for krogan, before. It's almost as if his brain knew more about medicine and healing then I do."

"Are you implying that Cerberus-"

Chakwas raised her hand to stop Shepard midsentence, "I'm not implying anything. It is just something I should bring up, as his doctor."

Shepard took a deep breath as she began to examine Sean's situation. Could Sean still be working for Cerberus? No. She lightly shook her head trying to remove the mere thought of that, yet it still clung on. The thought of someone she put so much trust in betraying her hurt her. She couldn't imagine anyone on her ship doing anything like that. Liara, Ashley, or even Garrus looking for a chance to stab her in the back. Those very thoughts chilled her to her core.

"I need to get some rest, but thank you for the information Doctor." Shepard said trying her best to conceal her inner worries.

"I understand. Anyway I should go back and check on Sean, his sedatives should be wearing off soon." Chakwas responded with a quick nod.

* * *

><p>Sean's senses returned to him like a hammer hitting a nail. As his eyes fluttered open he couldn't help but chuckle at an all too familiar sight. Here he was, again, laying on one of the tables on the medbay. The same fluorescent lights shining down upon him as the disinfected walls kept his healing process at the safest level attainable. He took a deep breath and savored it. There was no piercing pain inside of him and his head was not swimming in trauma, which came to him as a good sign. As he overlooked the aftermath of his body, he quietly laughed. He had to hand it to Chakwas, she was an amazing doctor and he probably owed more than his life to her.<p>

Sean paused momentarily as he reviewed what happened after the blast. Everything seemed so clear to him as he replayed it in his mind. The pain, the horror that went through his mind, and the emptiness, but one thing lingered in his mind who, or perhaps what, he had talked to in his final moments. Was it his mind messing with him or was it really something else talking to him and what did it mean he was important? The mere idea of a god like figure descending to talk to the man at death's door about how their life could affect the future reeked of the movies and sounded about as cliché as it could get, and yet he couldn't deny that it happened. His analysis slowly faded away as he looked to his right. Tali's head gently rested against his shoulder that quickly brought a bigger smile to Sean's face. He knew what he went through, but he could only begin to comprehend what Tali went through mentally. Right now all he needed to focus on was the present, as soon as this war is over then he can delve into his past. Sean leaned his head back and watched as his eyes slowly lost focus. He could only thank Chakwas and whoever was watching over him at the time of the blast for saving not only him, but Tali as well.

A hissing caused Sean's eyes to snap to the door. He let out a quiet sigh as he saw the doctor reenter the med bay. "Hey Doc, how'd it go?" He asked, his voice weak and raspy. Chakwas quickly rushed over to his side, grabbing a needle and prepping it. "Not supposed to be awake quite yet?" Sean asked a small smile creeping across his face.

"For all you've been through it's a miracle you're awake. I did my best to patch you up, but for now I need you to relax and let your body do the rest." Chakwas spoke softly injecting the sedative into Sean's IV. "No do me a favor, don't try and run out of here the moment you wake up again, for my sake and Tali's."

"I understand, don't worry I think I have had my fill of action for a while." Sean looked over as Tali began to stir. Still in a deep sleep she shifted her head slightly into the crook of Sean's arm, and Sean did his best not to laugh. Somehow in her sleep Tali still made Sean feel better. He lifted his right arm and did his best to wrap it around her neck, quickly leaning in and giving Tali a kiss on the top of her head. With a long sigh of happiness, Sean leaned back and closed his eyes, his mind focusing on the head generated by Tali slowly warming his body, and fell into a deep, welcomed sleep.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Sean yawned as he awoke from another long slumber. His back and legs ached from nonstop lying on the beds of the medical bay. He yearned to move and explore, he wanted fresh air in his lungs again, but most of all he wanted to be with Tali. He knew he would experience it all soon, but the mere fact that he was confined to this uncomfortable bed made him crave it more. As Sean went through his light stretch routine, he could feel that his body was slowly returning himself to the shape he was in before, this brought a smile to his face in hopes that he would soon be ready to return to the battle and end this war.

Sean lazily reached over and plucked the omnipad the doctor had given him to make his days less painful and began to load a new book onto it. His eyes moved over the words, but his mind didn't retain any of it, it was elsewhere. He was waiting for something to happen, anything. He wanted to talk; he didn't want to isolate himself. Without thinking, Sean swung his feat around and off the bed, unknowingly yanking equipment attached to his body off the counter and across the floor, causing a clatter to sound. Sean winced at the sudden noise and tried to correct the mess.

Halfway through righting the equipment, Chakwas entered. Cringing, Sean said, "Hhhh- hey doc."

"Getting ready to leave I see." The doctor remarked, casually walking over and helping with the mess.

"It's not quite what it looks like." Sean said weakly, "The bed's just that uncomfortable."

"Don't blame me, or these pieces of equipment, I wasn't the one who installed them. Plus they're not quite used for bringing back next-to-death's-door patients, that's what the hospital's are for. But then again, you do keep me busy."

"Well someone has to make sure all the expensive equipment gets to be used." Sean replied with a quizzical smirk.

"Glad to know that your sense of humor didn't leave you." Chakwas said as she continued to clean up the mess. After everything was returned to place, the doctor pulled up her personal omnipad and stood by the foot of Sean's bed. "Well, I have some news for you,"

"Good or bad?" Sean interrupted.

"Mostly good." Sean could feel his heart race as if he were to open up a present. "All your scans check out. I can now let you leave the medical bay."

"Yes!" Sean cheered throwing his arms up in triumph, accidentally pulling on the wires attached to his arms and chest, causing more medical instruments to come crashing down to the floor. "Oops." He responded rather sheepishly.

Sighing, and trying to hide a smile, Chakwas continued with her news, "One more thing: I don't want you putting more stress than necessary to your muscles, so I am telling Shepard to keep you on the Normandy until I personally clear you for active duty once more." Sean opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by the doctor continuing her speech, "Furthermore, you will report to me three times a week for muscle therapy and check-ups. I know you tend to get a bit antsy sitting round doing nothing, so this is what I can do to help your muscles return to their full potential."

Sean, once feeling like a dog freed from its cage, now felt the tug of the leash. He wanted to be out there on the battlefield doing something to help. At this time of the war being confined to his bed made him feel useless. There was no point in arguing. The doctor's word was final, that and he didn't have the energy to keep up an argument with her.

Sean carefully let his feet lower onto the cold ground of the med bay. The cold quickly gripped onto the soles of his feet, causing his muscles to tense and try to pull away, but he wouldn't let them, and then slowly did the same to his other foot. Once Sean felt like he was ready, he pushed himself off of the bed and took a moment to balance. He didn't understand why his body was taking so long. His mind felt ready, but his body seemed to drag behind. After a few tentative steps his body finally returned to normal speed and he headed for the door. With a quick stretch, Sean gave his goodbyes to the doctor and headed off to his room. On the way, Sean eyes caught Shepard's as she exited the elevator. Sean said nothing, but hoped his facial expression would be enough to perhaps speak for itself.

Sean approached his room and paused for a moment as the doors opened. Well, he thought, this will be my cage for the next few weeks.

* * *

><p>"Does he suspect anything?" Shepard asked as the doors slid shut behind her.<p>

Glancing quickly over nervously checking if Sean was watching them, Chakwas responded, "I don't think so. I told him it was for muscle therapy."

"Good. If the chip inside his brain had somehow come back online to save him, who knows if Sean is really in control of his body."

"I'll be running tests to see if it has given off any signals in the past few days."

"Get on it doctor. I need to know if he's a ticking time bomb on this ship."

"Understood. I'll make my work fast."

"What about everything else?" Shepard asked.

"Everything checks out. His body is more than ready for combat. It seems like nothing was lost in the explosion."

"You have got to keep him busy and keep a close eye on him in the mean time."

"Yes, Commander." The doctor responded, "Also he seems a bit demoralized by the recovery, if you could perhaps talk to him, or get someone closer to him to raise his spirits it could help this entire process."

"I'll go talk to him." Shepard said turning for the door, "I expect that you'll keep what happened here between the two of us."

"Absolutely." Chakwas said in return, not a hint of doubt in her voice.

"Good," Shepard responded as she began to walk out, "and thank you."

* * *

><p>Sean sat on his bed staring at the blank wall before him. It wasn't helping him, nor hurting him, it just kept his mind blank long enough for him to relax. He blinked and looked away as his thoughts began to break through his trance. He heard the doors open and turned to see who entered. Sean smiled as his eyes met Tali's. Tali entered with her hands clasped behind her back, obviously hiding something.<p>

"How are you?" Tali asked, carefully starting up a conversation.

Pretending not to notice what was hiding behind her back, Sean played along with the conversation, "Better now that you're here. How are you doing?"

Tali blushed slightly at his corny romanticism, "Better now that you're out of the medical bay."

"So…" Sean began trying to search for a topic to fill the otherwise awkward silence, "How are the quarians doing on Rannoch?"

"Very well. The geth have been constantly helping us get settled. They're actually helping to increase the immune systems of quarians by entering their suit and simulating new environments."

"Um…" Sean began, a hint of concern in his voice.

"Don't worry, you're the only one I'll let into my suit." Tali giggled.

"Well that's good to hear." Sean laughed, "It sounds like Shepard made the right call ending the geth war."

"I would never have guessed that quarians and geth would ever work together, but I'm glad that I got to see the day." Tali said walking over to Sean's bed, careful to not reveal what was behind her, and taking a seat next to him.

"Ok I can't play along any longer." Sean said, caving into his curiosity, "What's behind your back?"

"Who says I have anything?" Tali teased.

"You diabolical quarian…" Sean began.

Having enough fun, Tali began her presentation, "Well, once I arrived on the ship, I noticed that you didn't have the same arm that I had built you before."

"About that…" Sean interrupted, rubbing the empty port on his right arm; trying to ease whatever scrutiny was about to be put upon him.

Tali held up her hand to stop Sean, "I thought I'd upgrade what you had."

"You didn't." Sean said in complete disbelief.

Tali revealed a new, smooth and refined robotic arm from behind your back. "I was considering building it with five fingers, but I remember you growing to like three."

Once again, Sean was transported back to the time where Tali had first given him the robotic arm after the ambush on the Collector ship. The same surge of emotions leapt forth and he quickly embraced Tali. "Have I told you that you're amazing?" Sean asked in a humorous manner.

"Not recently." Tali teased and accepted the hug, hugging him back.

"Would you like to do the honors?" Sean asked offering Tali the port on his arm. Tali graciously accepted and clicked the arm into place, producing a small blue spark. "Just like old times." Sean reminisced, wiggling the fingers back and forth. Sean quickly glanced back at the picture mounted on his desk. He smiled, even though things were bad now he knew it could only become better with Tali at his side.

"I did notice the picture on your desk while you were… gone." Tali said sheepishly, stumbling on the last word.

"Oh right," Sean said, trying to avoid the topic of his death, "EDI came into my room a few weeks ago and gave me a few pictures to choose from. That one was my favorite."

"Where did EDI get that picture?"

"I assume from the camera feeds of us together. She probably narrowed them down to ones where we were closest together."

"That sounds really nice of-" Tali paused as her mind clicked some pieces together, "Wait, does that mean…"

"Well… There were a few awkward ones…" Sean said trailing off as an uncomfortable smile spread across his face. Tali quickly dove over Sean's lap, trying desperately to grab the picture frame, but Sean was too fast.

"Give it here!" Tali said, blushing furiously and desperately trying to reach the frame that Sean held just out of her reach.

"Hey, hey. It is _my _frame." Sean chuckled. Then gave in and handed it over to Tali who quickly scanned through it and removed the risqué photos.

"There" Tali said, breathing a sigh of relief and handing the frame over to Sean, "It's better now." Sean didn't say anything, but instead took advantage of having Tali on his lap and planted a gentle kiss on Tali's forehead. Tali giggled, knowing where this was heading and began to slowly take of her mask.

The hissing of the door opening startled both of them. Tali jumped and quickly snapped her mask back on and returned to a sitting position.

"Hello Sean- Oh sorry, I didn't know. Am I interrupting something?" Shepard said taken off guard.

"Not much." Tali said adding a little more space between Sean and herself, her shyness taking the better of her.

"Not much?" Sean said in fake offence, trying to remove the thick air of awkwardness, causing both women to laugh.

"Well I just came here to see how you are adjusting." Shepard said as casually as she could, "I know it's going to be difficult not being a part of this war for now, but I look forward to you returning to the fight for as soon as Dr. Chakwas clears you."

"Thanks." Sean responded, detecting a small tone of sympathy, "It's good to know that you'll always be on my side."

"Good to hear." Shepard said quickly leaving the room.

Sean waited for the door to slide shut then turned to Tali, "Now where were we?" He said returning Tali to his lap.


	22. Chapter 21

**AN: Finally got around to finishing up this chapter. I'm not going to lie, I've been slowly been losing my drive to write. It could be my passion of Mass Effect is leaving me (though I still remain a huge fanboy), but who knows … Regardless, I will finish this story mostly for the sake of closure on my part and mostly your guys' part. I'm also trying something to help churn out my chapters in a timelier manner. We'll see how that goes…**

**Anyway, I thank you for sticking with this story for this long and enjoying it (hopefully). It means a lot to me.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 21<p>

Another dreadfully boring week slid by Sean. Nothing happened that even remotely began to make it eventful. With an exaggerated sigh coupled with a yawn, he fell back onto his bed. He had already gone through his routine: talking with crew members, going down to engineering to talk with Tali, cleaning or repairing his weapons, and working out on James' equipment and each time those tasks became more and more dull. Sean longed for something that would pull him away from this boredom, hell he even welcomed another suicide mission.

All energy seemed to be sapped out of him and absorbed by the bed and he just lay there, completely beaten. Sean closed his eyes and rested, face-first, onto his pillow, ready for the day to end.

"Mr. Mason, Dr. Chakwas would like you in her office for your physical." EDI chimed in from the intercom, reminding him that his day wasn't done quite yet. He let out a groan that slowly increased as he lifted himself out of bed.

Sean walked into the medical bay and flopped onto the examination bed, letting his boredom ooze out of him. "Let's get this done doc, I'm missing my favorite vid." Sean sarcastically fired.

The doctor, used to the shelling of sarcasm from Sean said nothing and began her scans.

Dr. Chakwas hummed to herself quietly, trying to brighten the mood in the medical bay as Sean left. Every day it was becoming harder and harder to keep Sean moralized. She was worried that Sean might actually snap and run off into another battle, or worse be taken completely by Cerberus. She quietly sighed and looked over the scans again and again, looking for a reason to fret.

"Anything new Doctor?" Shepard asked entering the medical bay, glancing over to Sean stirring his food.

Chakwas waited for the doors to completely close before she began, "I've uncovered something, but its weak at best."

"What?" Shepard pried.

"It sent off a small, but long-range signal right before he died, but there's no record of it being received, or a returning signal. I don't know what to say, but whatever caused him to heal so fast was injected into him when Cerberus had him, nothing shows any slight activity from the chip that could have caused it."

"Doctor, how can we trust him knowing this?" Shepard remarked.

"Well, Commander, this isn't uncommon with chips like these. They all send out a deactivation signal, they're commonly used to destroy the chip leaving behind no evidence of their controllers."

"Its still something." Shepard said, "but I don't want to condemn him yet, I still believe we can pull Sean through this."

"Well, I can't keep him here much longer without causing suspicion from Sean or other members of the crew." Chakwas began, "If anything, slowly let him off of the ship and keep a close eye on him until you can fully trust in his actions."

"I still see Sean as a liable asset as long as there is the possibility that he has that chip functioning in his head. I feel like I would be constantly looking over my shoulder waiting for that moment when Cerberus decides to tap into Sean's brain and uses him to kill me or our crew, and that's the last thing I want to be focusing on in the midst of this war. I want to see if there is a way of shutting down the chip once and for all. Possibly bring him to a hospital that's experienced in surgery like this." Shepard explained.

"I understand the point you make, Commander, but it isn't me that you need to convince, its Sean." Chakwas said.

"I know, and I just hope he sees the reason behind my actions." Shepard sighed as she exited the medical bay. Shepard took a long time walking to Sean's room. She needed the time to contemplate what she was going to say. Would Sean react strongly to this, or would he understand? She paused outside the door and took a long lingering breath as she reminded herself the reason behind her actions. Sean has been a wild card ever since he returned to the Normandy. His mood swings added to his unpredictability. But right before he detonated the explosives on Rannoch he seemed most like the Sean she remembered. Conflicting thoughts made this even harder to do, but it needed to be done. Shepard felt horrible for going behind Sean's back, but she had her reasons. Reaching forward, Shepard pinged the door.

"It's open." Sean called from inside. Shepard carefully entered. "Oh hey there Commander." Sean said looking up from his disassembled pistol.

"Buying the time?" Shepard asked taking a seat down on the opposite end of the table.

"Well it's a mixture of habit and, yes, boredom." Sean responded, "I mean eventually I'll have something to do. Always look on the bright side, right?"

"Listen, Sean, about that..." Shepard began, trying to buy a bit more time to collect her thoughts. Sean looked up quizzically waiting for Shepard to finish her sentence. "The reason you haven't been able to leave the ship is because I ordered it." Sean said nothing, but his expression was a mixture of confusion and anger. "Dr. Chakwas and I believed it was too much of a coincidence that you survived the explosion. We think Cerberus is still in your head."

"What more do I need to show you?" Sean half yelled, a strong feeling of betrayal rising up inside of him, "I almost gave up my life to help you off of that damn world, and this is what I get?"

"Sean, I asked Chakwas to do scans on your chip during your physicals-" Shepard tried to explain.

"You've been going behind my back?" Sean spat, standing up from the desk, "and now you're accusing me of becoming a traitor?"

"Your chip was reactivated." Shepard lied, trying to calm Sean.

"What?" Sean said, stopping immediately in his tracks.

"Chakwas found that it sent and received a signal right before you died." Shepard explained, digging deeper into the lie, "We believe it was Cerberus that brought you back."

"You mean they could still be inside of my head?" Sean asked, "Then why can't I feel it?"

"Sean…" Shepard began, trying to talk a little sense into him.

"I mean, when I first saw you at the shipping facility I felt something snap in my brain and control was returned to me. I still could feel the influence trying to guide me to shoot you, but I could fight it back just enough."

"Maybe they're not trying to control you, but perhaps influence you, like subtly convince you to do something you normally wouldn't do." Shepard pondered.

"I don't like the sound of that, but then again, I don't want Cerberus to be in my head any longer." Sean said, his anger slowly leaving his body behind, "You have something planned?"

"There's a clinic that does surgeries far worse than yours in Illium. It's not the perfect planet, but it's the best we can get at this time."

"Thank you Shepard I appreciate it. Also, can you keep this on the down low? I don't want to lose all the trust I built up with this crew."

"I understand and I'll respect your privacy." Shepard said turning for the door, "I'll let you know in person when we dock."

Sean smiled and gave a grateful nod, and then turned to the window overlooking the drive core and engineering. Slowly his smile melted away from his face and he let out a long sigh. It seemed like his life had continually turned for the worse, but hopefully this would be the end of that. With Cerberus completely out of his head he could actually control his life and not have to worry about the Illusive Man sending people after him to 'protect their investment'. The mere thought of this made Sean feel like things were going to be better.


	23. Chapter 22

**AN: So this definitely worked. I'm glad that I got this chapter out, because now the final stretch of my story begins. I'll be sticking to this speed in updates (hopefully) for the rest of my story. Thanks for hanging in there with me.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 22<p>

A 2001 model clock clicked from the back corner of the waiting room of the surgical clinic. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock were the only sounds that came from the dead silent room. The room was nothing to flaunt over, but apparently this was the best, Alliance friendly, clinic outside of the Sol system.

Sean drooped his head over the back of his seat to try and accentuate his boredom. "Even during a war they still have us wait for what seems like hours." Sean remarked wobbling his head back and forth across the top of the seat for no particular reason.

"Just be glad they accepted us in such short notice." Shepard said quietly. She stood with her back to the wall, not entirely ready to relax.

Sean wanted to say something snappy about seeing Shepard in her 'casual' alliance emblazoned uniform, but held back, instead he said, "You could have used the Spectre card and probably boosted me to the front."

"I tend to lean away from flaunting my position as a Spectre, Sean. Plus, I don't think doing that would have got us anywhere faster." Shepard responded casually, "This establishment is a huge help to Alliance soldiers across the galaxy, offering doctors and aid in our time of need, I don't want to ask any more of them than necessary."

"Well that's great that someone actually offered their help without actually asking for something in return." Sean remarked.

Their awkward conversation was, thankfully, cut off by an asari entering the room. "Commander, We are prepped and ready." She said in the politest tone imaginable. Sean stood up and walked towards the nurse, right behind Shepard. "Ah and this must be…"

"Mason, Sean Mason." Sean replied extending his hand. She took it and gave a sincere shake, before turning back to her omnipad and cycling through it for his information. "I'm here for the chip removal thing." Sean said, trying his best to sound aware of his situation, but quickly failing.

"You said you had scans and information done by the ship's designated doctor?" The asari asked Shepard.

"Yes and I brought them along for the surgery." Shepard responded handing over another omnipad. The asari took it and began to cycle through the files at a very hurried pace.

"Excellent, then we can begin immediately." The asari said, turning and ushering Sean forward into the depths of the clinic.

"See you on the other side." Sean said giving a polite smile to Shepard, "I appreciate everything you've done for me."

"I look forward to getting you back on the field. Like old times…" Shepard said. And with that, the door swung shut cutting her off.

Sean slowly walked forward and was instructed to enter the furthest door on the hallway. He did so and entered the room entirely fitted for his surgery. The doctors inside introduced themselves and explained exactly what they will be doing to perhaps comfort him, but to no avail. Sean just remained focused on what would be next, the so-called light at the end of the tunnel. After their explanations, that Sean glazed over, the doctors paused and waited for Sean to prepare himself. Taking the hint, Sean then disrobed and lay face down on the bed as instructed. The doctors began to busy themselves, attaching many monitors and sensors to his body, attaching an IV drip, and selecting the proper equipment to begin.

"You'll just feel a pinch." One of the doctors said as she began to numb the area of his neck they were preparing to operate on.

As soon as Sean felt the pinch, his heart began to beat faster. His mind immediately jumped back to the moment where The Illusive Man instructed the surgeons to begin back inside their headquarters. He desperately tried to forget it, or push it to the back of his mind, but he couldn't.

"It's perfectly fine to be afraid of needles, my daughter hates when she needs to get her shots." Another doctor said, trying to make light of the situation as she noticed his heart rate shoot upward on the monitor.

Sean didn't respond, but instead closed his eyes and took a long breath in and out. He began to feel the sedative kick in as his head felt light and his eyelids droop. He tried to fight it, but it all came over him like a gentle wave, and soon he was out.

* * *

><p>Shepard reentered the Normandy and was quickly greeted by Specialist Traynor. "You arrived just in time, I have the Asari Counselor on the QEC. She asked to speak with you on over a personal matter." She said.<p>

"I'll be there immediately." Shepard answered, making a beeline to the war room.

"It sounded urgent." Traynor called back.

Shepard quickly jogged up the steps into the QEC and answered the call. The asari Counselor fizzled to life in front of her.

"Commander, I'm afraid our situation has become urgent." The Counselor said, worry in her voice.

"Have you made any progress towards the Catalyst?" Shepard asked, focusing on the more present matter.

"We have the exact location of it, but what is more important is we have received early warnings of a Reaper attack on Thessia. We heard what you did on Rannoch and require your assistance."

Shepard pondered the dilemma at hand. Could she ask her crewmembers to risk themselves again in another Reaper assault, or would she forsake a race for a chance to save them all. As much as she hated it, she had to help the asari as much as she could, but her primary objective still remained the Catalyst. "I am willing to offer help, but first I need to acquire the Catalyst, without it this entire war would be for nothing."

"Understood, I'll send a science team to the landing zone the moment I hear of your arrival."

"Thank you Counselor." Shepard said before exiting the call. She paused as She approached the holographic galaxy map. Could she chance leaving Sean unattended? She knew Cerberus was on the prowl, but could they find Sean? Shepard knew that the Catalyst needed to be her primary focus. Shepard called forward two Alliance soldiers stationed on the ship and ordered them to keep a lookout on the clinic that Sean was in. Both nodded and left the ship. With a breath of relief, Shepard returned to the map and called Joker up, "Joker, we're headed to Thessia."

"Thessia? The asari are actually asking for our help?" Joker replied, rather shocked.

"Double-time it Joker. We have mission critical information on the planet." Shepard responded.

"Aye aye. Headed to get another piece for the Crucible, got it."

* * *

><p>Few hours later<p>

Sean slowly awoke from a dreamless sleep. Rubbing his face, Sean's hand went to the back of his neck and his fingers brushed against a bandage. Memories of the surgery slowly returned to his head. He groaned as he lifted himself up on his arms, lightly testing how far he could move his head. He looked over and saw a flashing button next to him. His head still groggy, he pressed the button. Unsure what he did, he lay back down and waited for something. As he wondered if he should get up or call for someone, an asari nurse walked to his bedside.

"I see you have woken up. How are you feeling?" She asked habitually.

"Out of it." Sean bluntly said, "So what happened with the surgery?"

"Well…" She began, even with the sedatives still working Sean knew this wasn't going anywhere good, "We did our best to remove it, but it is grafted to your spinal vertebrae, and if we were to actually remove it, we could cause permanent damage to you.

With as angry of a sigh as Sean could muster, he asked, "So what _did_ you do?"

"We haven't seen technology like this ever before, but we did our best, and we believe we have rendered the chip useless." The asari said, uncomfortably shifting, obviously not used to this situation.

"Great… So can I go?" Sean asked, beginning to sit up.

"Commander Shepard asked us to keep you here until she returned to retrieve you.' The asari said, trying to put a calming hand on Sean's shoulder.

Alarms began to blare as the power to the lights shut off. Sean blinked, adrenaline trying to fight through his sedatives. Slowly red emergency lights went on illuminating the horrified look on the asari's face and the rest of the hospital in a dark, dangerous glow. She quickly ran off, probably running to her superiors to find out what was going on.

"Great…" Sean said to himself. He was on his own and clearly in no shape to fight. He lay back down, hoping that this would end quickly or someone would come by and explain what was going on, but after two solid minutes of the alarms and no one checking up on him he knew something was gravely wrong. Sean sat up and tried to move his body forward, but everything besides his arms refused to work. "What the hell did you guys put in me?" Sean yelled to no one in particular. His flight instinct kicked in hard and Sean, without thinking, threw himself off the bed. His body quickly met the ground with a resounding thump. Brushing the stars away, Sean clawed his way forward on the icy manicured floor of the clinic. No way in hell was he going to sit idly by when the shit was hitting the fan.

"Mr. Mason! We need to get you out of here." An Alliance marine yelled as he turned the corner.

"What the hell is going on?" Sean yelled over the din of alarms.

"They're here!" The marine yelled back, hoisting Sean's arm over his shoulder and proceeding to drag him down the long corridor.

"Who's here?" Sean yelled, trying to get some answers.

The marine opened his mouth to respond, but a wave of pain swept over him canceling out any chance of using his voice. His head drooped down, and Sean followed his eyes, seeing the blade of a sword protruding from the marine's chest. His waning strength failed and the ex-marine fell to the ground, carried quickly by Sean. Knowing that the marine was now useless to his escape, Sean turned to the ground and scrambled his way forward, desperately trying to get his feet to move. No luck. He stopped as a pair of black boots entered his vision and blocked his path forward. Sean slowly began to look up to see who was now blocking his exit. A female form clothed in a full body, heavy armored suit stood before him, the red mechanical eyes staring back at him, silently. She reached down and grabbed Sean by the collar and began to drag him away with ease. Sean tried to fight it, but just flailing his arms got him nowhere.

She dragged Sean to the lobby where three other armored woman like his captor waited. "We got him." The captor said in a half robotic voice.

"Good." A cool voice said from the shadows. The person the voice belonged to stepped forward.

"Kai…" Sean said, now it all made sense.

Kai then bent down to Sean's level. "We meet again Mr. Mason, too bad it wasn't on better terms." Kai said, the sliminess of his voice oozing into Sean's ears. "Let's bag him and return to base." He said to the rest of his squad. One of the females raised a stun baton, cueing the electrical tip, but Kai stopped her with a slight raise of his hand. "We need his chip functioning properly."

Quickly a bag was pulled over Sean's head and a pinch was felt in his neck. Once again darkness began to set it as he was put into another medical sleep.


	24. Chapter 23

**A/N: So here we go, this chapter took a while because it set the ground work for the following chapters so I got to get everything in line with my ideas.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 23<p>

Few hours prior

Shepard boarded the Normandy completely defeated. She had lost the Catalyst in perhaps one of the most embarrassing battles of this war, and to Kai Leng to make it worse. The man who had killed untold amounts of C-Sec officers and her former squad mate, Thane, got to waltz in and take the Catalyst with little to no fight. To add insult to that injury, Shepard had to watch helplessly as Thessia was completely overrun by the Reapers. Shepard rubbed her hands across her face after she tossed her rifle into the armory. She needed to relax for a while before she could shake this off and return to the warfront.

"Commander," Specialist Traynor said approaching Shepard as she made a beeline to the elevator, "You got a call from the clinic on Illium, Sean has finished the surgery and is ready for pickup anytime."

"Alright. Set the shortest path there. Let's get Sean and see where Kai is taking the Catalyst and if we can track him." Shepard said, still walking towards the elevator.

"Commander…" Traynor said trying to get the last amount of information out.

"Not now, I need a while to recover." Shepard said, letting the door close on her sentence.

Shepard fell onto the couch in her Capitan's cabin. With a long exhaled breath, she began the slow process of calming her nerves. She stared quietly into the fish tank, listening to the babbling noise of the filtered water reentering the tank, watching them lazily swim from wall to wall.

"Need some company?" Garrus asked from the doorway. Shepard didn't respond. "You know, none of us could have prepared for Cerberus attacking us at the temple. I mean even the asari couldn't predict that."

"So what am I supposed to say when we can't fire off the Crucible, when the Reapers come to wipe us all out? We tried our best?" Shepard asked, finally breaking her silence.

"What I'm saying is that we recollect ourselves and assault Cerberus and demand it back."

"Even if, how can we find their center of command? We teamed up with them last time and we all still have no idea where it is."

"Well… maybe Sean has an idea." Garrus guessed, trying to keep up his hopeful tone.

"He doesn't remember anything." Shepard said, still defeated.

"What else do we have to go on?" Garrus said, taking a seat next to Shepard and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Its worth a shot. There's more to him then even he knows. I bet with a little bit of help he may be able to delve into his forgotten past and find out."

"I guess you're right." Shepard said, breaking eye contact with the fish tank and looking Garrus in the eyes, "Thanks."

"As your boyfriend I'm entitled to a few duties, and Cheer-Up Crew is amongst them." Garrus said smiling.

* * *

><p>For once in a very long time, Shepard was fast asleep. The many days awake had taken a huge toll on her psyche and demeanor. It felt freeing that she was able to sleep if even for a few hours.<p>

"Commander."

Shepard shook the noise off as she tried to continue to sleep. She wasn't ready for whatever awaited her beyond her eyelids.

"Commander!"

Shepard's eyes slowly opened, "Hmm?" she was barely able to say.

"Commander, one of the guards called from the clinic. It sounds bad." Traynor said over the intercom.

"Put him on." Shepard ordered sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Commander." A very static filled voice said, "They're here."

"Who?" Shepard said, her heart forcing some adrenaline into her system to kick-start her.

"Cerberus. They've come for Mason." He said, panic in his voice.

"Protect him at all costs. That's an order. I don't want you to leave his side for a second." Shepard said bolting up and running to the elevator.

"Understood."

The elevator doors slid shut and dropped down a floor. "Joker! I need us on Illium an hour ago!"

"Cerberus…" Jokers said quietly to himself as he geared the Normandy up for a jump

* * *

><p>Shepard approached the building that used to house the asari medical clinic. The tall spire of a building didn't seem to feel the fact that it was almost completely missing a floor. It was obvious where the attack took place. A large chunk of the building was missing, from what appeared to be an explosive detonation from the inside. A large pillar of smoke emanated from the charred and burning insides. Shepard assumed that was how Cerberus made a quick escape, but how did they enter undetected? Judging by the vast crowd outside she already assumed that they were too late to save Sean. Cerberus had got him. Their best bet was to piece together the scene and hopefully find a way to trace it back to their headquarters, but that was only a glimmer of hope.<p>

Shepard pushed her way forward through the crowd that had formed at the base. Glass cracked underneath her boots and chunks of rubble sank into the formerly pristine grassy plot. The rubble that dotted the courtyard below, give the buildings around it a surreal feeling, and Shepard couldn't help but scan the rooftops for a chance that there may be a Cerberus agent overlooking their work. No luck.

"Woah, woah. Slow down." One of the officers at the front of the barricade said, shoving her hand in Shepard's face.

"Commander Shepard, Spectre. I'm here on official business." Shepard said, pushing the officer aside.

Ignoring the officer's cries, Shepard entered the clinic and looked over the wreckage. What remained of the office could hardly be recognized. The once clean walls adorned with pictures and plants were now burnt and crumbled at the slightest breeze. Shepard turned to the door she recognized seeing Sean walk through before, and slowly approached. Pressing her hand up to it to open it, the door fell off it's melted hinges and clanged to the ground. Scanning around the scorched operating room, Shepard saw a pair of bodies lying on the floor. She moved over to the bodies, which appeared to be asari and human. Instinctively, she checked the bodies for a pulse, nothing.

"Commander? Commander are you there?" Dr. Chakwas asked over the radio.

"I'm here doctor, what's going on?" Shepard answered.

"Did you find Sean?"

"No, not yet, but I believe Cerberus got him." Shepard responded, kicking aside some rubble and pacing around the corridors.

"I feared as much" Chakwas responded breathing out a sigh, "Well, when you sent Sean to the clinic I asked them to see if they could separate the signal Sean's chip gave off."

"If they were able to do that it could be a possible way to find the Cerberus headquarters." Shepard said finishing off the thought, "I'll find it, doctor." She began to scan the area in hopes of finding a datapad, to her dismay there was not on in the vicinity. Shepard then walked slowly down the dilapidated corridor at times grimacing at the charred remains of the innocent people caught up in a Cerberus plot that they had no knowledge of. Approaching a door, Shepard lifted her hand and wiped away some of the scorch marks. The stain still remained, but enough ash was removed for her to make out the word "Office". Hoping that this would be where they kept the patient files. To her luck she found a locked filing cabinet. With a quick hack, she opened the drawer labeled "Patients". She began to thumb her way through the alphabet until she came across Sean's file.

"Doctor." Shepard said activating her comm. unit, "I found it."

* * *

><p>Sean was jolted awake. Not even a second needed to pass for him to discover where he was. With a gasp, Sean instinctively began to fight against his restraints. He eventually settled down enough to take in where he was. The exact same room where he had gotten the chip installed, bastards. This time, he wasn't horizontal on the bed, for some reason he was at an incline and forced to look at doctors scurrying around the medical bay.<p>

"Welcome back." The Illusive Man said standing before him. His face was cloaked in the shadows. Sean expected him to walk forward to once again dramatically reveal that they had gotten him back and that he was in control, but he remained in the shadows.

Sean groaned. He felt like he had already been through this. He could almost predict what the Illusive Man would say next. You're an important investment to us; you're vital to humanity winning the war; blah blah Cerberus blah.

"Don't you have anything better to do than capture me?" Sean shot back.

"Now why would we let our best double agent go?"

"Double agent?" Sean said, his eyes snapping forward, trying to read any expression that might make its way through the darkness.

"You don't think the chip stopped working did you?" The Illusive man said lighting up a cigarette. Sean managed to get a glimpse of his face. To his surprise it looked like he had seen some battle. Some deep, darkened scars had ran their way across his face, like a grenade exploded too close to him. The light from the lighter faded away and Sean was forced to wonder once more what was going on. "We lowered our influence on you just enough to make you feel comfortable and to not get noticed."

"You used me to get tabs on Shepard."

"Exactly, and you were none the wiser." Sean grimaced, how could he be so oblivious? It was not entirely his fault. He put the crew of the Normandy in danger, and he was just a pawn. He let his head droop. He felt like he had completely failed, he didn't deserve this second chance. For a moment he wished he were back on Rannoch, dead.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. You couldn't have seen it coming." With a wave the Illusive Man summoned the doctors forward, "Now we're upgrading you for our conquest."

With a snap, Sean felt his consciousness dragged back into his mind. He lost all control of his body once more.

* * *

><p>"Commander, we found the signal." Traynor said, furiously typing on the panel before her.<p>

"Send Joker the course. We're going now." Shepard said, leaning over the Galaxy map, "We're ending this stupid feud."


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Shepard nervously bit her nails as the Normandy approached the Cerberus base. Even through the Alliance's Fifth Fleet had cut through most of their defenses, she still worried about what awaited her on the inside. As the base drew closer and closer, Shepard could feel time slow as her anticipation spiked. Shepard turned and glanced at Joker whose stone-faced expression helped calm her nerves.

"EDI, Inform the team to meet in the shuttle bay" Shepard said as she began to leave the cockpit

"The team?" EDI asked, trying to clarify the statement.

"I need everyone on standby for this mission."

"Understood." EDI said standing up and joining Shepard.

"Wait Commander," Joker said trying to get Shepard's attention. Shepard turned and returned to the side of Joker's chair. "Do you really think this is wise?"

Shepard knew Joker would have a hard time chancing the loss of EDI. "Joker, no one knows Cerberus better than her." Joker swallowed hard. "Don't worry I'll keep her safe." Shepard said setting a reassuring hand on Joker's shoulder.

Shepard turned and entered the elevator, riding it down to the bay. The door opened and all six of her squad mates faces met hers. She continued to walk until she stood at the door of the shuttle. Taking a deep breath, she began her orders.

"As you all know we will be assaulting the main base of Cerberus. It's not going to be easy, so that's why I called all of you here. The moment we land the Illusive Man will throw everything he's got at us. We have to hit this base fast and hard. I want team of four to head straight for their communications. The moment we have those signals being sent in and out permanently offline the base will be crippled, giving us ample time to find the Catalyst. In the mean time, two of you and myself will be headed for the Catalyst. Liara and EDI are going with me. Garrus, I want you to lead James, Ashley, and Tali to the comm. station, EDI will give you directions along thee way." Liara and Ashley nodded in understanding, but Tali didn't move. Her eyes stared into Shepard's, formulating a response. Shepard let out a quick breath. "We're almost there and this is the last step to winning back Earth and taking down the Reapers."

Shepard watched her team enter the shuttle, and as suspected, she was pulled aside by Tali.

"Shepard, What is going on?" Tali said sternly, "I've been hearing rumors…"

Shepard paused and decided to go with the blunt route, "Sean was taken back on Illium."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Tali almost yelled.

"I needed you to focus on the task at hand, knowing Sean was captured would have sent you into a fury." Tali didn't respond, but Shepard saw her eyes tighten in anger. "This is the best way to get Sean back. I could tell Cerberus was still in his mind. They would never leave on their own. When you get to the comm. center you can shut down all signals out and then we can find Sean."

"And what's to stop me from just going after Sean?" Tali said, emotions quickly rising inside of her.

"The clinic on Illium couldn't stop the device. Cerberus is still in control of him, and now that he's back, who knows what they have done to him. If the chip is brought back to its full potential, he could kill you on sight." Shepard took a deep breath in and put both hands on Tali's shoulders, trying to calm the writhing emotions inside of her, "This is the only way to get Sean back, the Sean you love."

With a staggered breath out, Tali nodded and entered the ship. Shepard sighed, she hated all the infighting that was going on between her, Tali and Sean, but this was the only way to end it. The only thing that she hoped for what after all of this, they would still have a heart to forgive her. Shepard grabbed the rail and pulled herself into the ship and joined Cortez at the front.

* * *

><p>Tali's boots thudded against the manicured floors of the Cerberus base. Fueled by worry with a sprinkle of revenge, Tali sprinted in front of her team. She could feel beads of sweat forming on her face as her suit tried to keep a controlled temperature.<p>

The path to the communication center was relatively quiet. Except for the occasional guard, Tali hadn't hit any major hold-ups, but she knew that the Illusive Man was keeping an eye on her.

Tali's omnitool beeped at her, signaling that the communications room was growing nearer. "This might be it." She said slowing her pace as she reached a locked door. Kneeling down, Tali brought her hands up and began to furiously hack at the door controls. She could hear Ashley and Liara bantering behind her, but chose to ignore them.

Slowly but surely the code began to fall in place. She was ready for whatever lay behind the doors, but most of all she way ready to get Sean back once and for all. As she began to punch in the final line of code, her finger slipped. The door locked itself once again, scrambling the code. A stream of Khelish curses streamed from her lips as she tried to force her way back into the controls. Another foolish mistake caused the door to clamp shut once again followed by more profanity. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Garrus approach and squat next to her.

"Tali, I know what you're going through is hard, but take a breath and calm yourself. There's a lot riding on you and we need you at your best."

Tali didn't respond.

"Tali, you're one of the best damn engineers I have ever seen, and you're going to let a simple door lock stop you?"

"I don't have it in me." She said in a barely audible tone, "Everything that I know and love is in jeopardy. If I screw up, it'll all be blamed on me."

"I know a lot of pressure is on you, but you have it in you." Garrus replied, "Do it for Sean. He's counting on you, you're his only hope."

Tali closed her eyes and took a staggered breath in, then slowly let it out. She opened her eyes, feeling a sense of rejuvenation and got back to work on the door. Within seconds the door unlocked.

"I knew you could do it."

As the door slid open, Tali was greeted with a shotgun blast to the chest, the force of the shot sent her skittering across the floor.

"Hostiles!" Garrus yelled as he ran to cover Tali from a few shots meant for her. Ashley and James opened covering fire as Garrus pulled Tali around the corner. "Are you alright?" He asked, furiously eyeing Tali up and down checking for any bullet holes or blood.

"I'm fine, just got the breath knocked out of me." Tali said, slowly standing up.

"Then you're going to need this." Garrus said tossing Tali's shotgun back into her hands. Tali loaded a fresh clip into it and prepared to enter.

* * *

><p>Shepard continued to move forward. This was a momentary lull in the action that faced her on the way to the Illusive Man's personal office. She turned a corner and faced a long corridor, with only one door situated at the very end.<p>

There it was. A door, like all others, but this held all the secrets of Cerberus. The fate of the entire galaxy rested in the hands of her team, the only thing that could stop her waited behind the door.

"EDI, can you get this open?" Shepard asked as they stopped in front of the door.

"This should not take too long." EDI said as she began to hack into the locking mechanism. A moment later the door clicked open.

Shepard nodded her appreciation towards EDI and rushed into the room, gun drawn and ready. The room was empty. Across the polished floors that reflected the darkest depths of space sat a lone chair and a holographic screen. Shepard shuddered as she pushed on further into the room. The extreme lack of sound helped force everything to feel off. Her boots clicked on the floor as she walked forward to the chair that overlooked the central star of the system. The light the star gave off basked the room in a blue color.

Taking a seat in the chair, Shepard began to scan through the files. "We need to find the Prothean VI."

"Shepard." The Illusive man said from behind her. Shepard whipped around, gun drawn, to see the Illusive Man's figure on the holographic pedestal. "You're in my chair."

"This chair is the last thing you have left. Cerberus is finished." Shepard said, trying to hide her rage.

"On the contrary. We've achieved everything I have ever imagined… Almost everything."

* * *

><p>Tali worked through the mess of codes trying to individually shut each one down and not cause a total system blackout or worse. Wires around her feet had slowly begun to knot themselves around her toes, and already her hand motions had to be fine-tuned to pull any important wire. She hated being stuck in the rafters, but this was the only way to get to the system after the Cerberus Troopers destroyed the main server banks. The rafters reminded her of the Collector base, where she was sent through the ventilation shaft, of course without the heat threatening to cook her alive.<p>

"How's it going in there?" Garrus shouted from below her.

"Its a mess, but its unraveling slowly." Tali yelled back downward, carful not to look away from her screen.

"You or the codes?" Garrus playfully teased.

"Hilarious, Vakarian." Tali said, sarcasm dripping from her lips. "Hit any more reinforcements yet?"

"Not yet, though a few stragglers wandered through the door."

"Good to hear. I don't want to get riddled with bullets while I'm up here." Tali then turned on her comm and tried to reach Shepard. "Shepard, come in Shepard. We have reached the communications center and I am currently shutting it down." No reply. Tali growled as she blamed the lack of a response on a scrambler.

* * *

><p>Shepard had just finished her conversation with the Prothean VI and turned to EDI, ready to ask for her to search the Cerberus data banks for any more useful information. Her command was cut short as a blaster shot connected with one of the screens causing it to fall into static.<p>

"He warned you not to overstay your welcome." Kai Leng said slowly pacing behind Shepard, a small smile creeping its way across his face. He then drew his sword and assumed a stance, ready to strike. Before Shepard could ready herself, another Cerberus operative dropped in from the ceiling. This one, clad in a grey and white full body suit, also drew a sword. Yet this one was different, instead of sleek armor like Kai, this operative had heavy plates on and a backpack. With a flick of its wrist, an electric whip appeared in the operative's hand. This operative would be easy at a range, but deadly up close.

Shepard couldn't wait for much longer and opened fire on Kai. Kai jumped away from the shots and began to assault Shepard's position. Before Shepard could duck away, the electrical whip from the operative wrapped itself around her throat. Electricity coursed through her system, causing her to lose control and her body to tighten up. The operative then pulled the whip, causing Shepard to fall to the ground and slide before him. The operative then raised its sword ready to hit with a killing blow.

"Shepard!" Liara yelled before tossing a warp towards the operative. The operative's hand paused for a split second, causing the warp to hit him square in the chest knocking him backwards.

Shepard rose up and opened fire once more. "Liara, EDI! Focus fire on the operative, I'll take care of Kai."

"Ooh, now its personal." Kai smirked.

Shepard opened fire, never letting go of the trigger as she traced Kai's movements with her rifle. Before she knew it, Kai was right in front of her. As he swung at her with the sword, Shepard reacted by raising her gun. The sword stopped by the gun gave Shepard a perfect moment to hit Kai. Lowering her right hand, Shepard drew her pistol and fired three shots into Kai's chest.

Staggered by the shots, Kai fell back, but then charged forward. The butt of Shepard's rifle met his face and sent him careening to the ground. Kai tried to flip out of his submissive state, but a barrage of bullets to his chest stopped him.

"Commander, come in Shepard!" Tali's voice sizzled through some static.

"Tali I read you. What's going on?" Shepard said, turning away from Kai's bleeding corpse, to the operative. It looked like Liara and EDI needed her help. The operative was warding off almost all of their attacks with either his shields or his whip.

"I have the code and am shutting down all communication in and out of the station." Tali said. "Turning it off… now."

Shepard raised her rifle, ready to take an unexpected shot at the operative, but a second after Tali's "now" the operative stood up straight and shivered before falling to the ground.

It couldn't be.

"Stop!" She shouted as she saw Liara and EDI prepare to take advantage of the situation the operative had fallen into. Liara turned quizzically toward Shepard, but didn't let her gun stray from the body of the operative that now lay motionless on the ground. "Take his helmet off." Shepard ordered as she approached the body.

"Shepard…" Liara began to object.

"Just do it!" Shepard ordered once more.

Carefully, Liara brought her hands closer and closer to the helmet, half expecting the person behind the mask to lash out at her at any moment. There was no movement. Liara felt around for the seal then with a wary press, released the helmet. The visor plopped off to reveal Sean's face.

"What…?" Liara could barely say.

"They had him all along." Shepard mumbled.

"Are they still in control?" Liara asked.

"I have no idea. EDI?" Shepard asked.

"I have no reading of any type of communication coming from the station. Perhaps when Miss. Zorah cut all communications it deactivated the signal to the control chip inside of Sean." EDI responded taking another read of the station.

Shepard noticed Sean's eyes begin to flicker. "Be on your guard," she warned, "This could not be who we're expecting."

Sean's eyes snapped open, and almost as quickly as they opened, fear shot straight through them. His body convulsed as he scrambled backwards, panting. Sweat began to form on his brow as he neared the wall.

Sean reached down and grabbed the sword his other self had been using. He pointed it at Shepard, jaw quivering. "Stay back."


End file.
